Silent Stars
by Punisher143
Summary: Konata's life starts to take a bizarre turn and soon her and her friends find themselves fighting for their lives. Rated M because, well, Silent Hill.
1. A perfect nightmare

Oh god, this is such a terrible title, but it was all I could think of. DX Hopefully the title won't put you off. I'll explain myself at the end.

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><p>She wouldn't have known where she was if she hadn't been here a hundred times before. There was the manga shop she frequented and the other one that always got her to buy something. There were numerous posters for anime and manga on the walls, along with billboards for the same.<p>

She was in Akibahara.

It was one of her favorite places to be.

Now it was different.

The liveliness that used to permeate the streets was gone and replaced with an unsettling silence. The flashlight that was clipped to her school uniform barely broke through the darkness, which was so thick that there were no stars or moon. She could also hear shuffling sounds coming from the darkness.

The girl was named Konata Izumi, and right now she felt totally alone.

"What's going on?" she asked out loud. The darkness offered no answer. Konata took a few steps before the shuffling sound started again. She looked to where the sound came from, turning her body to keep the light in front of her. Konata thought that she saw a girl wearing a school uniform, but she couldn't tell for sure. Konata decided to brush it off as best as she could and continued walking. She stopped when she stepped in a puddle and was appropriately shocked to find blood. She also saw that the blood continued for a ways in the light.

Konata's survival instincts kicked in and overrode her curiosity. So, Konata turned around and went back the way she came, only to find that the road gave way to a large chasm.

'Wait, if it was like that, then how did I get here?' Konata thought. She was about to muse on this a bit more until she heard that shuffling sound again. Except this time it sounded a lot closer. Konata turned around, hoping to see the source of the sound, but there was nothing there.

'Well, considering my lack of options…' Konata thought to herself, hating herself for what she was about to do. She took a nervous gulp and started moving back down the street, following the blood.

The trail seemed to go on forever, since Konata had walked down several streets. It had started to rain a little, but Konata barely noticed. Those shuffling sounds were starting to get to her, since they seemed to come from everywhere.

While she was walking, Konata couldn't help but think about what was happening. The whole district was dark, without a single light on. The lack of stars was also unsettling. Konata was pretty sure that was impossible, and she was starting to feel claustrophobic.

After a while, the blood turned into an alleyway. Konata laughed nervously, gave a low mutter of "Great," and proceeded down the alley, shaking some nervousness that developed in her arms. She made it about halfway down the alley when she heard something besides the shuffling. It sounded like someone crying.

Despite the feeling of dread that developed in her stomach, Konata pushed onward. A few seconds later, she thought she could see the end of the alley coming up. Konata unclipped the small flashlight from her uniform, barely registering that she hadn't questioned its presence, and held it up to see better. She wasn't expecting to see the small figure curled up in the corner.

It was a girl wearing the same uniform that Konata had on, but it wasn't the uniform that caught her attention. That would be the short lilac hair and yellow bow on her head.

"Tsukasa, what are you doing here?" Konata asked, slowly walking to her friend. Tsukasa stopped crying when she heard Konata's voice. She started to stand up slowly and awkwardly. "Are you ok?" Konata asked, clipping the flashlight back onto her shirt. "This place is really weird Tsukasa. I think we should get out of here as fast as…" Konata stopped when Tsukasa started turning to her.

Tsukasa was slightly hunched over so her hair covered her eyes. But not fully, since what Konata did see wasn't the blue eyes that she knew. Instead, they were pitch black, as if the eyes weren't there. She was also gritting her teeth, which seemed sharper than they should be. Konata's brain shut down and didn't restart until that _thing_ unleashed an earsplitting screech and tackled her.

Konata felt weird when it touched her. She felt…cold. Like the life was being sucked out of her. With a bit of struggling, Konata managed to shove it off her. As soon as it was off, Konata was up and running. She could hear that things screech behind her, though she didn't dare look back to see what was behind her.

As soon as she was out of the alley, Konata made a hard right and ran into the first store she could. She ran to the back and, through luck, found an open locker. She quickly got in, shut the door, and turned off her flashlight.

The Tsukasa-thing ran in about two seconds later. It was breathing in deep, guttural sounds. Konata watched it through the slits of the locker, with her breath held and her hands over her mouth. It moved around the room, looking for Konata. It even came to the locker where she was hiding a few times. The last time it seemed ready to open the locker before a crashing sound from the front drew its attention away and followed it. Konata waited for what seemed like an eternity before leaving the locker.

She decided to take the door that she didn't come through. That door led to a hallway, which probably connected the backrooms of the shops. Konata shut the door behind her and walked down the hall a bit before she heard another sound. It sounded like wheels creaking.

It happened too fast after that. In the darkness beyond the flashlight, something long and narrow shot toward Konata and hit her in the left shoulder. Pain surged through her body like waves. The world seemed to slow down for Konata. She looked at what was in her shoulder and it looked like a tube you would find in a hospital. She tried to pull it out, but was stopped when three more identical tubes shot out and imbedded themselves in her right shoulder and both of her thighs.

Konata couldn't move the pain was so great. The creaking sound continued and what was attached to the wires was shown. What seemed like a hospital gurney rolled into the flashlight's beam. The hum and beep of life support equipment came from the bed, and all the wires and tubes were attached to a small figure lying motionlessly. The bed was being pushed by what seemed to be a young man, though Konata couldn't tell since its face was obstructed by the hood it wore.

But it wasn't the pusher that scared Konata the most. That would be the small figure on the bed, with its long blue hair. She didn't have much time to ponder this, since another wire extracted itself from the bed, hovered for a second, and then wrapped itself around Konata's neck. It squeezed tightly and lifted Konata off the ground with a strength it couldn't possibly have. The wires in her shoulders were so painful that she couldn't have fought it off.

Her vision started blacking out.

She thought the person on the bed tilted its head up and reached out to her.

Konata tried to do the same before darkness overcame her entirely and her breathing stopped.

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><p>Alright, I'm a big Silent Hill fan and I'm also a big Lucky Star fan. So really, why not have something like this? We've already crossed Lucky Star with Fallout. As it turns out, all it takes is one picture to spark this kind of thing. I'll put the link in my profile, if your interested in what started this thing.<p>

But really, this is mostly me testing the horror waters. I've never written something like this before, and if I can't accurately recreate the feel of Silent Hill, there's no point in writing more of this. I NEED to know if I'm doing a good job on this. It may sound like I'm begging for reviews, but if I ever needed to do that, it would be now. I love both of these series too much to botch either one up too much. So really, any kind of review is appreciated on this.

Well, that's really it. Thanks for reading this through if you ever find this.


	2. Rolling fog

Well, here's the next one. Once again, let me know how I'm doing.

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><p>"And after I blacked out, I woke up," Konata said, "Weirdest dream I've ever had." Konata took a bite of her chocolate cornet and waited for her friends reactions. Miyuki was apparently deep in thought, Kagami had a look on her face that screamed 'what could you have <strong>possibly<strong> thought to dream that?' and Tsukasa had went to the restroom, so she missed the story (which was probably a good thing). Kagami was the one who broke the silence.

"Well, it is an interesting dream. Although I'm more surprised that you managed to dream of something that wasn't a video game or manga," she said, slightly teasing with the last sentence. Konata huffed a little, but her regular grin came back.

"You have a point there, Kagamin," Konata returned.

"Stop calling me that," Kagami said with annoyance in her voice.

"If I may ask," Miyuki said, attracting her friend's attention, "Why did that monster look like Tsukasa?" The question hung in the air for a few moments.

"Actually, why is that?" Kagami asked.

Konata shrugged. "I don't know that's just how it happened. I mean, how do you explain the death trolley?" She asked, wiggling her fingers when she said 'death trolley'.

"Well, I remember reading something that said that some things in dreams could be symbolic of things that happen in real life," Miyuki said, "But, I didn't really read much more than that, so I wouldn't know what to think of your dream."

_'What exactly is a demonized Tsukasa supposed to symbolize?'_ Kagami thought to herself.

Konata just waved nonchalantly. "Its okay, Miyuki-san, I just thought it was an interesting dream."

"What dream?" Tsukasa, who just got back, asked.

"It's nothing, I'll tell you later," Konata said.

"Ah, lunch is almost over, I'll see you guys later," Kagami said and left the classroom.

Konata finished her cornet and tried, futilely, to get ready for class. She happened to glance out the window and she thought she saw fog outside. Konata blinked a couple times and the fog disappeared, so she shrugged it off and tried to focus on school.

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><p>School soon ended and Konata, Tsukasa, and Kagami were walking home. Konata had just finished telling Tsukasa about her dream, making sure to leave out the demonic version of her and some details of the end.<p>

"Gosh Konata, I don't think I could stand a dream like that," Tsukasa said.

"You know, what caused you to have that dream? I mean, you've never had dreams like that before right?" Kagami asked.

Konata started thinking. After a moment she said, "I have been playing a lot of horror games lately, like Silent Hill and stuff. Maybe that's it."

_'Yeah, that would do it,'_ Kagami thought to herself.

"I never heard of that game, what's it about?" Tsukasa asked.

Konata got a twinkle in her eyes and started to explain. "Some of the finer details are kind of confusing, but it's basically about this town that draws people to it and makes them face their worst fears by having them fight monsters and stuff. There's also this cult that wants to summon their god or something." Tsukasa just gave a confused stare. "It makes sense if you play the games."

The small talk between the three continued, with them switching topics every now and again, until they went their separate ways. On the train ride back to her house, Konata looked out the window and thought she saw fog again, although it disappeared like the last time. She didn't think anything of it.

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><p>The afternoon found Konata doing her usual thing: reading manga, playing games, and eventually calling Kagami for the usual request of copying homework.<p>

"How many times are you planning on copying my homework?" Kagami asked, barely concealing her annoyance.

Konata gave a small chuckle. "Sorry, I guess I just have a lot on my mind lately," she said.

"Is that your excuse right now? Is it that dream?" Kagami asked.

Konata gave a small sigh. "Yeah, I can't get it out of my head. And the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Does that make any sense?"

"No, not at all," Kagami said.

Konata got up and began walking to her window. "Yeah, maybe I'm thinking about it too much," she said and peeked out her window. "Man, it's really foggy out. Did the weather say anything about this?"

"Huh, what are you talking about? It's clear outside and it's not cold enough for fog anyway," Kagami said.

Konata squinted, trying to see through the fog. "It's really thick, I can barely see across the street," She said.

"Wha-as tha-our breaking u-nata-"was all Konata heard from the phone before it went dead.

"Kagami?" Konata asked, only hearing the tone from the phone. She tried dialing Kagami's number again, only to be rewarded with a busy signal. Konata left her room to find her dad.

But he wasn't in the house. She checked everywhere for him and couldn't find him.

'Ugh, where did he run off to?' Konata asked herself as she walked back into her room. She was about to resign herself to a manga when her cell phone went off. She picked it up, humming the song while checking the caller id, which she didn't recognize. Konata decided to answer it anyway.

"Hello?"

Nobody answered. Konata was about to hang up when the other person spoke.

"Am I speaking to Konata Izumi?" The voice was male, but he sounded strange stressing every syllable in Konata's name.

"Yeah, who is this?" Konata asked. The voice waited a moment before replying.

"Is it foggy outside?"

Konata checked and found the fog still there, although it seemed thicker. "Yeah it is, but what does-"

"You are in danger," the voice said, interrupting Konata.

"What? What are you-"

"_They_ patrol the fog and the dark. They will try to find you, and they will try to kill you."

"Huh, who are-"

"I will send you the location of safety via text message. Be fast, and bring a flashlight."

"What are you talking-"Konata tried to say, but the voice hung up on her. She couldn't help the angry growl she gave. After a moment of collecting herself, her phone made a noise indicating a new text. Konata opened the text and read it.

**'Safety is at the twins house. Move fast and avoid the hulking one. You won't survive it's jaws.'**

_'What is __**that**__ supposed to mean?'_ Konata thought to herself, _'Well, I guess I'm going to Kagami's house.'_ Konata grabbed a jacket and put it on. She grabbed a flashlight from the closet on her way out. Konata opened the front door and stopped. The fog outside gave off an air of menace and foreboding.

Konata swallowed and stepped outside, closing the door behind her.


	3. First Steps

**I might as well put this little nitpick here to avoid any mood whiplash later. How exactly _do_ health drinks heal you? I understand first aid kits because their made of first aid kit and ampoules because they're narcotics and magic, but health drinks? I don't know, if I was attacked by a skinless bird or had acid spat in my face, I wouldn't trust a V8 to put me back in working order. Maybe I'm just thinking too hard on this.**

**Anyway, on with the show!**

**Oh yeah, and I don't own Lucky Star or Silent Hill. Obviously.  
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><p>When Konata stepped outside into the fog, she felt this nagging feeling that she had seen this somewhere before. The fog was still as thick as it had been inside, surrounding Konata to an almost claustrophobic level. Even though it was late afternoon, there wasn't a sound of life around her. Everything about it just screamed 'familiar' somehow.<p>

But right now, she didn't focus on it. Instead, she was focusing on the way to Kagami's house.

_'I don't see why that guy made such a big deal out of this,'_ Konata thought to herself as she walked, _'It's just a train ride and a short walk to Kagami's place. I don't see why I have to be worried over a little…'_ the rest of that thought was lost when Konata saw a minor obstacle, which was the street was gone.

As Konata proceeded to walk to the chasm that blocked her way, something clicked into place in her head. The fog, the chasm, the nightmare of darkness and monsters chasing her, it all added up.

_'I somehow walked right into a Silent Hill game,'_ Konata thought as she looked into the abyss, _'…That's kind of awesome, actually.'_

Konata almost lost herself in thought before remembering the situation she was in.

_'Oh right, this was the quickest way to the station,'_ Konata crossed her arms and thought for a second, _'I guess I'll just take the alleys, I'll be fine as long as I keep heading in this direction.'_

Konata nodded in approval of her plan and chuckled to herself as she walked to the nearest alley. _'Maybe I'll run into Pyramid Head along the way.'_

Konata never used these alleys and side streets much before, mostly because there was no reason to. The usual sounds dogs, cats, birds and the like were gone, leaving an eerie stillness in the air. Although Konata didn't notice this, her mind caught up in thinking up strategies for fighting and general exploration.

Konata made her way through the alleys, making the occasional side trip to look for health drinks, all the while wondering how they heal the characters anyway, until she found yet another chasm blocking her way.

"Wow, that's actually really annoying when it happens to you," Konata said aloud. A quick look around later and Konata found an opened gate. "Aha, a contrived convenience, a staple of any Silent Hill experience!" Konata said with a finger pointing in the air. She stood like that for few seconds before slouching. _'Maybe I should stop talking to myself like that,'_ she thought before entering the gate.

The backyard that she was in was pretty standard for a backyard, with not much out of the ordinary. Konata took a quick look around before her eyes found something. There, sitting alone on the porch, was a lone health drink.

_'Wow, I didn't think I'd actually find one,'_ Konata thought to herself as she walked over and picked it up. She was contemplating on whether or not to smell it when she heard a commotion upstairs in the house.

She didn't know why, but Konata found herself backing away from the house. After a couple of steps, that proved to be the right idea because a man was thrown from one of the windows, causing Konata to give a startled yell. The man landed hard on the ground and rolled a little before stopping. When he did, Konata saw that he was bleeding pretty heavily from his head.

He wasn't moving.

It took Konata a few moments before she started walking carefully to the man, his blood already staining the grass.

_'Is he alright?'_ She thought to herself.

When she was a couple feet away, she got her answer when the man's head shot up and his hand grabbed her ankle. The sudden movement startled her, causing Konata to fall backwards.

"Help…me…" the man said, terror in his voice, as he reached toward Konata with his other hand. It didn't last long though, because when he did his injury seemed to get the better of him, resulting in his eyes rolling up into his head, his body collapsing and his grip on Konata released. Konata crawled backward, away from the man, until her back hit he fence. She stayed like that for a minute, just staring at the man, before she worked up the courage to crawl over and check on him again. She checked for a pulse like how they saw it done on TV and felt nothing.

_'Oh god, he's dead,'_ Konata thought with her eyes widened with shock. It was then, kneeling next to a dead man surrounded by fog, that the reality of her situation began to finally sink in. The excitement felt from any sense of adventure and from finding that health drink, still clutched in her hand, was gone. It was replaced with a queasy stomach and a feeling of dread that came from knowing that her only way forward was into the house.

It took Konata a moment or so of deep breathing to keep that urge to throw up from taking over. When she was sure she wouldn't, she stood up slowly. Konata remembered the health drink and stowed it away in one the pockets of her jacket. She then started walking towards the door into the house, getting the flashlight out in case it was dark inside. When she did reach it, she looked back at the man and…what? Offer him a small prayer? Wish him luck in getting to the next life? Konata didn't know what, but she had to offer something.

All she could muster up was a small "I'm sorry," and with that she opened the door and walked into the house.


	4. First encounter

**I apologize in advance if this one isn't as good as previous chapters. My mind kind of melted a little due to another incident when writing the second half. Ah whatever, on with the show!  
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><p>The inside of the house was decently lit, so Konata didn't need to use the flashlight. She put it away and looked around the room she was in, which was like the backyard being nondescript and not particularly out of the ordinary. This served only to heighten the contrast the world had taken. Konata could feel her heart racing and was quite ready to get out of the house and make a bolt for it in case whatever killed that man showed itself.<p>

Konata made her way through the house, making sure to keep as quiet as possible. When she got to the front door, she found that, of course, it was locked.

_'Oh you've __**got**__ to be kidding me!'_ Konata thought, although she knew that something like this would happen. She then noticed a note taped to the door, which she obediently read.

**I've left the key in a place even a child could find.**

_'Well that was helpful,'_ Konata thought. She sighed and, against her better judgment, decided to search the house. She looked through every drawer, cupboard, anywhere a key could be hidden. The first floor was devoid of keys and even worse, no sign of whatever killed the man. Konata's mind offered the possibility that maybe it left, it's no longer in the house, and while she wanted to believe it she knew better.

Konata was thinking she should just open a window and get out that way when she heard something break upstairs, like shattering glass. That feeling of dread came back as she walked to the foot of the stairs, which was near the front door. When she got there, the door at the top of the stairs creaked open a little.

_'Oh man, this has to be a trap,' _Konata thought before taking a deep breath and slowly walking up the stairs, '_but it usually is.'_

When Konata reached the room, the first thing she noticed was the broken window and some blood on the floor. That was almost enough for Konata to see, but she took another deep breath and looked around the room. It looked like a regular teenager's room, with a bed, study desk, and a TV with a ps2 hooked up to it. The one thing that really caught Konata's interest was a small notebook, lying near the bloodstains. She walked over and picked it up and, with a quick look around, decided to put her back against a wall before reading it.

Most of the beginning pages were either ripped out or scribbled over. Eventually, Konata reached a legible page and started reading, taking quick looks up between entries. There seemed to be a part where a date would be, though now it was scribbled out.

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><p><strong>That one guy, Kenji or something, from the other department messed up the sales numbers again. This is the fifth time he's done this! I told the boss about it again and he said the same excuse of, "He does good work," and that was the end of that. On my way home it started fogging over, even though the weather said it would be clear. I hope tomorrow will be better.<strong>

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><p>This one also had a scribbled out date.<strong><br>**

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><p><strong>It's still foggy today. Not only that, but my car wouldn't start, which meant I had to try the train. I was halfway to the station when I realized that there were no people around. There were also no cars in the street and the traffic lights weren't working. I decided to go back home, only to find that the road back had collapsed! Almost all the roads were like that. And every now and then, my phone would start making some kind of static sound. I'm in the only unlocked house I could find. I can hear screaming in the distance.<strong>

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><p><strong> I got a call on my cell phone just now, which surprised me since it hasn't been getting a signal up until now. When I answered, whoever was on the other line asked one question.<strong>

** "Am I speaking to Konata Izumi?"**

**I said I didn't know who that was and…then he said, "Then you're not important," and hung up. I tried to redial him, but all I got was a busy tone.**

** The screams are getting closer. I'm so tired, but I'm too scared to go to sleep.**

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><p><strong> Something is beating on the door. I'm so scared; I don't want to die here. The front door locked itself a while ago and some note said that the key was 'where a child could find it.' I can only assume that means it's in a child's toy and the only thing remotely like that is-<strong>

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><p>It ends there. Konata dropped the notebook and slid down to the floor. She felt her eyes starting to tear up. She had gotten lucky. What made her more special than him? Why did that voice leave him to die? Too many questions were building up and Konata wished this was all a dream.<p>

But it wasn't, at least as far as she could tell. So Konata forced herself to get up. She looked at the ps2. It was a slim model with a flip open tray. On instinct, she went over and opened it and found the key inside it.

Konata didn't bother to question why it was there, she just took it. She was way past that point; all she wanted was to get out. Konata was about to stand up when she heard **that** sound, which immediately kicked her senses into overdrive.

Static.

Out of instinct, Konata made a wild dive to her left, barely in time to escape the pipe which smashed the console to pieces. As soon as she landed, Konata got up and turned to her attacker.

"Oh you've **got** to be kidding me!"

Konata wasn't expecting to see what she did, which was a girl in a school uniform with short brown hair and a yellow hair band. The girl lifted the pipe and slowly turned to Konata. There were scars running across her face and down her neck. Even then, Konata couldn't help but recognize her and, somewhere inside her, she heard her inner fan girl squee.

"I see I found another disobeying the brigade leader's direct orders," the Haruhi-thing said, its voice seeming hoarse, "So many punishments do dish out today." It advanced on Konata, readying the pipe for another swing. Konata quickly ducked under the swipe and tackled the Haruhi-thing, which to her surprise worked pretty well. It was knocked off balance and fell and fell on its back, which gave Konata enough time to run out of the room. When she slammed the door shut, she saw the things face and it looked _pissed._

Konata didn't wait around to see if it would follow her. Taking the stairs two at a time, she nearly crashed into the door. A quick unlock later and Konata was out of the house and into the streets again. The static was gone now, so Konata decided to let off some anger.

"WHAT THE HELL! Why is there a monster that looks like Haruhi Suzumiya and why does it want to take my head off?" She screamed into the fog. With that outburst done, Konata caught her breath a bit and decided to find out where she was. She soon found a street sign that showed Konata was going in the right direction. Konata then started walking towards the station again. Along the way, she had a thought.

'I didn't pick up a radio, so where did that static come from?' Konata crossed her arms and thought about it when the answer presented itself with some light static. She soon found the source to be her cell phone. 'Oh yeah, the phone did serve the radio's purpose in Shattered Memories, didn't it?' Konata also remembered that the man's notebook said something to that effect, and on remembering him, Konata felt a ping of sadness. Konata put her phone away and proceeded carefully forward, the static growing louder. Soon enough, she saw a figure in the fog and nearly died of shock at who she saw.

'Is that Kagami?' Konata thought, and indeed it did look like her tsundere. She was about to call out to her, but then remembered the static and that dream. 'Oh crap,' she thought and started to slowly walk around her, or would it be 'it'? Whatever the proper term, it didn't really matter since the figure happened to turn its head in her direction and saw her. Konata was close enough to see it's features, which were the same as her dream.

It gritted its teeth.

"OH CRAP!" Konata yelled.

The Kagami-thing let out a scream, causing Konata to cover her ears.

She heard other screams in the distance.


	5. Chase

**Well, I managed to shake myself out of my pony fueled craze to get this done. Hope you enjoy it, though it may be a little off since I need to get back into writing. Oh well.**

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><p>Konata knew she was in trouble, so she started to run. The Kagami monster almost tackled into her when she did. Konata could feel the cold air it seemed to give off. She didn't look back to see that it would get up and keep the chase up. She ran into an alleyway.<p>

The screams were getting closer to her and the source of one revealed itself to be another monster, this one looking like Miyuki. It didn't get over the fence fast enough so Konata ran past it and around a corner.

Right into a Tsukasa monster. It grabbed Konata, the same cold feeling from the dream passing through her where it touched, and also managed to sink a bite into her shoulder. The pain provided an extra incentive to get it off. So, without thinking, Konata rolled onto her back and used that momentum to kick the monster off of her. A move she remembered from one of the fighting games she played. She also saw that, luckily, the Tsukasa monster flew right into the Miyuki one. Konata didn't waste any time in gawking and started running as soon as she was back on her feet.

Konata ran toward where she thought the train station was. She didn't register anything but the pain in her shoulder and the need to run. More monsters showed themselves, trying to hop over fences and looking through windows, each one of them looking like a twisted version of one of her friends.

After turning what seemed to be the hundredth corner, Konata found herself back out in the streets. The screams weren't as loud and her phone wasn't going off, so Konata allowed her pace to slow to a jog. She decided to take a look at the bite.

'Dangit, those things have a nasty bite,' Konata thought to herself. She touched the bite, which sent a jolt of pain through her body, and Konata saw blood. 'Oh, I am in serious trouble. If basic enemies are like that, I'd hate to see what the bosses are like.' Konata shivered at the thought then shook her head a little.

"No, concentrate girl. I think there was a first aid kit at the train station. I better hurry before they catch up."

It was only then that Konata noticed that there were no screams. Everything was quiet, which proved to be more unnerving than all the screams. Konata decided to run the rest of the way to the station.

Konata managed to reach the station with little difficulty. There were a few bursts of static every now and then, but nothing popped out. This did nothing to ease Konata's nervousness.

'After all,' Konata thought to herself, 'A good tactic to grow into is always expect something to jump out at you.' Konata walked to the office she would pass by when taking the train.

'If this door is locked, I'm breaking the window,' Konata thought dryly. Thankfully, no windows were broken since the door was unlocked. The lights inside were off, though the windows provided enough light to see. The place was a mess, with papers and various other things scattered on the floor. A notebook stood out on the desk, but Konata ignored it in favor of the first aid kit on the wall.

'Ok, I think I remember what to do when treating cuts and the like,' Konata thought to herself. She took the kit off the wall and brought it over to the desk with the notebook. She took off her jacket, not bothering with the tank top she had on. She opened the kit and took out a roll of gauze and a bottle of disinfectant and proceeded to try and treat the wound. When that was done, she pulled the jacket on and stuck what was left of the gauze in a pocket, 'just in case.'

Konata then decided to look at the notebook, though she was a little surprised to find it had only one entry.

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><p><strong>I'm starting to have second thoughts about living here. It's nice and the people are friendly, but people have been disappearing lately, sometimes in plain sight of other people. The news says that a business man, a café worker, and a couple high schoolers have gone missing. Makes me wonder when I'm next.<strong>

* * *

><p>The small note was more than enough to remind Konata of that small bit of helplessness. There were other people here, and she couldn't do a thing to help them. That thought hurt a lot. She was close to ripping the note to shreds when she heard something outside.<p>

It sounded like giant footsteps. Konata also realized her phone was giving off static that grew louder with each step. Konata backed away from the window and pressed against the far wall. When the source of the footsteps passed by the window, Konata could really only think one thing.

'Holy crap, that thing is huge!'

Whatever was out there was easily about the size of one of the train cars, maybe a little bigger, with massive legs that carried it. Konata also got a look at its mouth, which had plenty of sharp teeth and a body of what seemed to be one of those screaming monsters, this one looking like Minami. It also, bizarrely, seemed to have long pink hair and chains wrapped around its body. Even though it didn't have eyes, Konata still felt like it could see her. It growled lowly, but thankfully the chains whipped at its sides and it moved away. Konata waited until the booms of its footsteps and the static died down before she released her breath.

After a minute of waiting, Konata left the office and went toward the train tracks, which the monster had come from. There, she found a fully powered train car.

'Convenient,' Konata thought to herself while slowly walking toward the open doors. 'Then again, when something is convenient in Silent Hill, it more often than not leads to bad things.' She decided to hope this wasn't one of those times.

When she got in the train, the doors shut and the train moved towards Konata's destination. Konata sighed a little and leaned against a metal bar, taking care not to injure her shoulder any further. Then she heard something that confirmed her earlier fears about the train.

In the distance, she heard a siren going off.


	6. Broadcast

**First trip into the Otherworld! Let's hope I can keep this up.  
><strong>

* * *

><p>'Oh crap,' was all Konata managed to think before her head started to ache from the siren. The small headache soon turned into splitting pain which caused her to close her eyes, clutch her head and fall to her knees. Konata thought she heard metal twisting into shape over the siren, which was unbearably loud. Thankfully, it soon died down and the pain in Konata's head went with it. When it stopped, Konata managed to open her eyes to find that the train had changed. The car looked much older, like something out of a western movie Konata caught on TV once. Konata got up and noticed that it was dark outside.<p>

'I'm in trouble,' she thought to herself when the train screeched to a stop. Konata wasted no time getting off, taking out and turning on the flashlight.

Konata was hit with an overwhelming sense of déjà vu when she looked around the station. It looked liked it had been abandoned for a while, with trash everywhere and even a pile of TVs on a bench. The feeling of dread and foreboding in the air was suffocating. Konata was startled out of her thoughts when the train started up and went off to parts unknown. The sky that replaced it was pitch black. Turning back forward, Konata took a deep breath and started walking.

Konata looked around the station, taking in the condition and trying to recall the directions to Kagami's house. Almost everything about the station told her she wasn't welcome, especially when Konata noticed some scratches on the walls. She was so focused on them that she barely realized when one of the TVs turned on. When she did notice it, she was naturally curious and moved closer to investigate. No amount of preparation would have prepared her for what it started showing.

"Lucky Channel!" screamed a voice over a card reading the same. The card then fell to reveal a young girl with pink hair and wearing an outfit resembling a sailor uniform.

"Hiya luckies, as always I'm your navigator Akira Kogami," the girl said in an excited fashion suitable for her age. Normally Konata was all for the moe act, but given the surroundings it made her more uncomfortable. The TV switched over to show a young man in a school uniform.

"And I'm Minoru Shiraishi, the assistant," he said with a small bow.

"Sebastian?" Konata asked herself. The camera zoomed out to show both of them behind a desk. All the yellow was starting to give Konata a headache.

"We're sorry for interrupting your regular programming, but this is a special Lucky Channel report!" Akira said in that same bubbly voice. After she said that, the two sat there in silence for a few moments before Minoru perked up and looked at Akira.

"Am I reading it?" he asked, and like a switch had been flipped Akira's entire demeanor changed as she gave Minoru an incredibly harsh glare.

"Of course you're reading it, we rehearsed this," Akira said her voice gaining a gravelly edge, which for some reason, didn't surprise Konata as much as it should.

"Oh, alright, umm," Minoru started, though he was obviously confused. Someone from off camera handed him a sheet of paper. "Oh, thanks," he said and started to read it over.

"I can't believe you don't know what's going on," Akira said while resting her head on an arm.

"Well, I just got here Akira-sama, so I really don't," Minoru said.

Akira's eye started twitching. "Then why are you even here?" she asked barely keeping the anger out of her voice.

"…fan expectations?" Minoru hesitantly replied.

This caused Akira to snatch the paper from Minoru and yell, "Oh shut up! I'll read it since you don't know what we're talking about!"

"I'm sorry Akira-sama!" Minoru said flinching away from her. Since Akira was busy reading the paper, Minoru hesitantly settled down.

'What the hell am I watching?' Konata asked herself, 'if this is a news show, then I've never heard of it.'

"Oh, it's this story again," Akira finally said and sighed, and then in a snap that same childish attitude appeared. "OK, I'm sure all you luckies have heard about the sad news about the recent disappearances."

"I don't really watch the news that often. Have these disappearances really been that big?" Konata spoke aloud.

"Heh, I would expect no less from an otaku," Akira mumbled in that gravelly voice.

'Wait, what?' Konata thought.

"Well, we got more sad news," Akira said, the bubbly attitude back, "There appears to be another disappearance."

Konata swallowed a little. "Really, who could it be?" Konata asked aloud, not wanting to know the answer.

Akira gave an incredibly twisted smile to the camera. "You, Konata Izumi," she said.

Konata felt a pit in her stomach drop and her eyes widened in shock. "What?"

Akira read from the paper, the same smile on her face. "Local high-schooler Konata Izumi disappeared from her room about an hour ago," she said, a picture popping up next to her. Konata recognized the picture, which was of her, Kagami, Tsukasa, and Miyuki during their last vacation. Konata was circled in red.

'Good times,' she thought.

"Her father said she didn't leave the house, and the last person to talk to her was a schoolmate who couldn't be reached for comment," Akira put the paper down and looked right at Konata. "Who knows if she's still alive right now, or if she will be missed."

Konata started shaking a little and felt tears form in her eyes. The words hurt a lot.

"That's not true; my friends are probably worried right now. I know they are."

"Who, the friends you've been running from the entire time you've been here?" Akira asked.

"Those things weren't my friends."

"They were trying to help you, you know."

"They were trying to kill me!" Konata yelled at the TV.

"Exactly. Who are your Konata? You're just an otaku who can do nothing but play games and spout off anime references. No one's going to miss you when you die, cold and alone in the dark."

Konata felt the tears escape and the anger brewing. "Who the hell are you to say those things? You don't know anything about me or my friends! And guess what, I'm still alive right now!"

Akira let the smile fall, and then she sighed and looked at Konata disappointedly. "Really Konata, that's your response? You and I both know what I said is true. Just give up, it will be so much easier than kicking and screaming in the dark."

Konata couldn't take anymore. She dropped the flashlight, walked over to the TV and picked it up.

"SHUT UP!" She yelled and threw the TV on the ground. The screen shattered and with it so did Akira's image, smiling victoriously. The only light now came from the discarded flashlight. The anger spent, Konata sank to her knees crying.

She knew what Akira said were lies, but they did spring doubtful thoughts in Konata's mind.

'My friends are worried about me, right?'

'They care about me.'

'They wouldn't abandon me here, would they?'


	7. The Beast

**I don't really have anything to say here. So...yeah. BTW, sorry the chapters are so short. It just seems to work better in my head.  
><strong>

* * *

><p>"No, I haven't heard anything from her. Her phone must be dead or something." Kagami said. She was talking to Konata's dad, Soujirou, over the phone. Apparently Konata just vanished from her room without a trace.<p>

"Alright, well if you do find her, let me know ok? I'm really worried," Soujirou said.

Kagami nodded to herself and said, "I will. Goodnight."

"Yeah," Soujirou said dejectedly and hung up. Kagami did the same. She sighed and made her way up to her room. She was almost there when Tsukasa came out of her room.

"Hey sis?" she asked.

"Yeah?" Kagami asked. Tsukasa fidgeted a little before answering.

"I kind of overheard your phone call. Did something happen?"

Kagami was hoping she wouldn't have to explain it to Tsukasa, but it seemed unavoidable now. So Kagami sighed and decided to give the short version.

"It's probably nothing, but Konata's not in her house. Her dad said that he didn't hear her leave and she's not answering her cell phone."

Tsukasa gasped. "She's vanished? Where did she go?" Tsukasa asked, worry filling her questions.

Kagami put a hand on her twin's shoulder. "Don't worry; I'm sure Konata is fine. She probably just wandered off somewhere. I'm sure she'll turn up soon enough."

"Really?" Tsukasa asked.

"Of course," Kagami said reassuringly, "But for right now, there's not much we can do. WE just have to wait and hope."

Tsukasa nodded. "Alright, I'll try and relax. I hope Konata is alright."

Tsukasa went back in her room and Kagami went to her own.

'So do I,' Kagami thought and tried to do some studying, even though it proved futile.

* * *

><p>It took a few minutes before Konata finally stopped crying. When she did, she found that her shoulder was stinging with pain. She took the health drink she still had and downed it in a single gulp. She tossed the empty bottle into a pile of trash, her shoulder feeling a little better.<p>

_'I better get moving. I'm so close now,'_ Konata thought and wiped some tears off her face. The memory of Akira's little speech pushed Konata to her feet. _'I won't give that brat the satisfaction of being right.'_

Konata retrieved the flashlight and made her way out of the station. Before she did, she noticed something reflected the light near the exit. When she went over to it, she was slightly baffled by what it was. On top of a trashcan was a teddy bear and next to it a purple colored magatama. Konata picked it up and inspected it. On the back of it was a small passage.

* * *

><p><em>Two halves make a whole. Only with a whole can the way be revealed.<em>

* * *

><p>Konata couldn't help but sigh at the passages simplicity.<em> 'So I'm supposed to find two of these to open the exit? This place must be having an off day for puzzles.'<em>

Konata pocketed the item and exited the station. When she got to the street and its thick darkness, Konata noticed the rain. It wasn't too heavy, but still noticeable. Konata was glad for the jacket.

_"I used to like rainy days when I was a kid."_

That voice, which seemed to come from all around her, gave Konata the chills. She remembered saying that to Tsukasa once. Konata wanted so badly to be back there, with her friends. Konata tightened the grip on the flashlight and started down the street.

Konata remembered that Kagami's place was only down a couple streets from here. So naturally, the way was blocked by a chasm. Konata let an angry growl escape and looked around for an alternate route. The darkness around her proved its unnatural qualities by overtaking the light after only a few feet. A quick search later and Konata found an alley.

Then she heard the static, low at first, but soon screeching. Konata looked around frantically for the source, and then heard a scraping behind her. She turned and found her source.

There was a single large claw grasping at the ledge of the chasm. It seemed to be giving off a dull glow. A second soon followed, and after that came the head.

_'Oh no,'_ Konata thought, recognizing the monster from the station, only this time she got a full look.

She was right about the size and the teeth. There were chains all around its body, the connecting point seemingly on its back. But the thing that surprised Konata the most was its hair. Pink in color, done up in twin tails, and sporting a bow on its head, it provided three kinds of horrifying déjà vu at once.

It climbed up from the pit, still not noticing her. She had noticed its lack of eyes and wondered how it could see. She got her answer when she saw its back.

The chains all connected at the back, holding down a figure. It could barely get higher than its hands and knees because of the chains. It was small, like a child, and the only thing Konata could distinguish about it was the hooded jacket it wore. It turned its head and so did the beasts.

Konata backed toward the alley. 'Does that see for it?' She wondered.

It turned its head toward Konata and when it saw her, bright red eyes snapped open in it. The beast's head followed the movement and growled when it 'saw' Konata.

She didn't need any more incentive to start running. She ran into the alley and dared a look back. The beast was not only huge, but fast since it nearly closed the distance to her. It stopped at the entrance of the alley, not sure what to do. That changed immediately when a few chains whipped against it. It roared and advanced, slowly but surely.

That sight made Konata run as fast as she could. She went through alleys, around corners, and sometimes over the occasional fence. Nothing she did seem to matter, since the thing on its back always seemed to have its eyes on her, leading the beast to her. Soon, the alley ended and Konata was back on the streets.

_'Oh no, I'm a sitting duck out here,'_ She thought and looked desperately for somewhere, _anywhere_, to go. Her mind nearly went blank when she saw that, through blind luck, she was near the shrine Kagami's family was responsible for. The beast's roar behind her urged Konata into the shrine.

Her legs burned from all the running, but Konata didn't want to rest now. It would mean death. Konata wasn't too picky when it came to hiding places and settled for the first building on the right. The door opened and closed, save for a small crack, and Konata could do nothing but watch.

The beast stuck its head through the gate entrance, somehow not hitting the sides, and looked around. Konata turned her flashlight off, hopefully giving herself an extra advantage. Her heart was racing and thoughts started creeping into her head.

_'What if it can hunt by smell?'_

_'What if it can hear me?'_

_'Oh please don't let it see me. I don't want to die.'_

These thoughts tore at her. To her relief, the beast seemed to give up, pulling its head back and moving away. When the static from her phone died, Konata released the breath she had been holding.

She didn't relax entirely though. It was probably still around, just waiting for her to show herself.

_'I can't find that other piece fast enough.'_


	8. The search

**And here I show my complete lack of knowledge about Japanese architecture. Oh well.**

**I am sorry about the short chapters. The story just seems to flow better like this to me. If it is that much of a problem, I'll try and make them longer.  
><strong>

* * *

><p>When Konata passed by the train station and walked into the darkness, she didn't notice a figure sitting on a nearby bench. Not that it mattered; she wouldn't have noticed anyway. It was in complete darkness and wasn't making a sound. It had stayed like that for a while, listening to the occasional wandering monster and the roars in the distance. After a while, it stood up.<p>

_'It's been long enough,_' it thought and clutched the object in its pocket_, 'I better get going.'_ With that thought, it set off into the darkness, a goal in mind.

* * *

><p>Konata had finally worked up the courage to leave the building she was in. She waited a second to see if the beast would come back, but after a few seconds it didn't. Konata's heart was still racing. She allowed herself a few deep breaths before hesitantly turning the flashlight on to look around.<p>

The shrine was what Konata had expected given the rest of the world: wet and rotting away from abandonment. The rain also seemed to be coming down harder. Some part of Konata's mind couldn't help but note that the rain wasn't really cold.

_'Alright, what do I do now?'_ Konata thought, assessing her situation. _'I guess the best choice would be to find a way to the house, preferably without going back into the streets.'_

Konata nodded to herself and started to walk when she felt pain in her shoulder. A quick check showed that it must have been healing well, but the bandages were getting pretty dirty.

_'I think I remember Miyuki say that it's a bad idea to leave dirty bandages over a wound. I'd better change these.'_

So Konata sat under a nearby overhang and set about changing her dressings. Once the dirty bandages were off, she found that the wound was healing nicely, except for some of the deeper parts which were still bleeding. As she put new dressings on it, Konata winced at the memory of the bite. She then wondered what would have happened if more of them had gotten to her. Konata shook the thought away and finished with the bandages.

With that done, Konata set off to find anything resembling an exit. Soon, she found her best bet.

Konata had been here before and she didn't remember this gate being here. The gate was set into the wall lining the shrine's area and from the way the path bent past it; it looked like it went to Kagami's house. Konata got closer to it and nearly lost it when she saw the lock.

"Oh that's a bunch of crap! The puzzle said TWO halves, not FOUR!" Konata yelled angrily. The lock had four indents in it, the outlines of each colored differently, with it being purple, dark blue, light blue, and black. Konata had been through a lot, and this just served to anger her. She got even angrier when she realized that, technically, the puzzle still worked.

_'Four pieces, with two forming a circle each,'_ she thought with a sigh. _'I hate this place.'_

Konata decided to bleed off some anger, and put the magatama she already had in its place with a bit more force than necessary. With that done, she turned and started her search for the rest.

Since she didn't have a clue where to start looking, Konata wandered around the shrine until she found herself at the fortune stand. She noticed the shine that was coming off it, and couldn't believe she found another magatama so quickly. The magatama's deep blue color was brilliant and it was also hanging from a fortune. Konata took both of them and read the fortune.

*note line*

_You will have little luck. You should be cautious of new paths._

*note line*

_ 'Little luck? Heh, understatement of my life.'_ Konata thought to herself and pocket the fortune and magatama. She was about to walk away when the static started up again. Konata looked for the source, but couldn't find anything immediately. The static grew louder and Konata was tackled from behind. Konata still had enough sense to see a Miyuki monster near her, getting up from the ground. Konata managed to scramble to her feet by the time it started charging at her again. With little time to run, Konata threw a wild punch, which managed to connect with the monster's face.

When it landed on the floor, Konata ran for the nearest door. She was through it and a few rooms when the static died. Konata stopped for breath, her hand throbbing from the punch.

_'Great, the little ones are here now. I guess the big one really is gone,'_ Konata thought with little comfort coming. Konata looked around the room she was in, which housed a bunch of incense burners, all of them unused.

_'I don't remember the shrine being this big,'_ Konata thought as she walked to the far wall. She was almost there when her head started to hurt and she heard a loud ringing. The pain was nearly as bad as when the siren was going off. Konata dropped her flashlight and clutched her head. Through the pain and the ringing, Konata thought she heard someone talking.

"-she thi-she i-cute-ct? Not eve-the bre-o talk to."

When the talking stopped, so did the ringing and pain. Konata had sunk to her hands and knees, drawing deep breaths. She thought she recognized the voice, but didn't believe it.

"No, that couldn't have been Kagami. I'm just imagining things." Convinced that she deluded herself well enough, she grabbed the flashlight and stood up. When she did, she saw the familiar shine of a magatama, this one light blue. Konata snatched it up and put it with the other one.

'Ok, one more to go,' she thought. She turned to leave and was almost to the door when the static started up again.

Konata barely had enough time to realize the source was behind the door when it pounded on it. The door shook with each pound and looked like it could give at any second. Konata looked for another door she could take, but didn't find any. The door shook again. Konata gulped and got ready to sprint. When the door finally gave, it revealed a Haruhi monster. It wasn't expecting or prepared for when Konata charged and tackled it with her good shoulder.

It hit the wall and Konata sped down the hallway to her left. She heard the monster scream behind her, but she didn't care. As she ran, all she cared about was getting that last piece and getting out of here.

* * *

><p>In front of the shrine gate, a lone figure walked in. It didn't run into much trouble, since the beast was gone for now and the little ones couldn't see well in the dark. It still had a hold on the object needed to complete its task. So it walked and hoped that it wasn't too late.<p> 


	9. Escaping

Konata dashed through the hallways as fast as she could, the scream of the monster behind her driving her on. She turned a corner and bolted through the door around the corner, which thankfully led outside. Konata shut the door as soon as she was though it and caught sight of the monster rounding the corner.

'_Oh crap, what do I do?'_ Konata thought backing up from the door and fell off the porch. Konata was getting to her feet when she saw the space underneath the porch and, seeing no other options that probably wouldn't result in death, decided to hide there. She quickly dove under the porch and shut her flashlight off as the monster behind the door started banging on the door. The door didn't hold for long and soon Konata saw a pair of thin legs drop from the porch.

'_Ok, maybe this wasn't such a smart move. All it would take is one look and I'm dead.'_ With that little thought in her head, Konata held her breath and waited to see what the monster would do. The legs didn't move for a while, all the while it seemed to be growling in frustration. The legs started jerking back and forth as the growls grew louder and eventually turned to a scream.

"Raaaaagh, you can't hide forever you criminal!" it yelled as it slammed its pipe on the ground and ran away. Konata didn't dare move until she was sure that it was gone, and slowly crawled out after a minute. After making sure she was alone, Konata stood up and ran toward where she thought the gate was. She jogged for a good while before turning her flashlight on to see where she was.

'_Ugh, where am I? It's so dark I can't see a thing,'_ Konata thought as she walked, keeping an ear open for any sign of monsters. _'I'm actually kinda surprised that this dark world didn't do much; all it did was add more monsters and this darkness. Usually it would do much more.'_ Konata reached a crossroad and, after a moment of deliberation, went down the right path.

'_Wish I had a map. That would certainly help.'_ Konata jerked a little when she heard a crash from somewhere, but after a moment of nothing happening she continued on. _'Am I going the right way? I'd hate to run into a dead end and get ganked by a bunch of monsters. And now that I said it, it's probably going to happen.'_

Much to Konata's surprise, that didn't happen as she found herself back in the main courtyard. Konata was honestly dumbstruck at her luck and she probably would have stayed like that for a while if another crash hadn't sounded in the distance. After a quick check to make sure big nasty was still gone, Konata started jogging toward the gate, although she had to stop after a while when her shoulder started to hurt again.

"Dangit, how can this be hurting already, it hasn't even been an hour," Konata said rubbing her shoulder to try and relieve some pain. She managed to at least dull some of the pain by the time she reached the gate. She looked at the indentations and sighed as she reached into her pockets. "Well, let's see if this works."

Her first grab pulled out was the purple magatama, which was inserted into its proper place. Konata waited a moment to see if something would happen, and when nothing did she pulled out the dark blue one and set it with its partner. A click came from the gate, mildly surprising Konata.

'_No way, is that it?'_ she thought and tried pulling the gate open, but it didn't budge. Konata sighed and reached for the third stone, _'Of course not, that would be too easy. Stupid multi key doors.'_

"_She's always alone..."_

The sudden voice caused Konata to whirl around and search the darkness around her. There was nothing around that could have spoken, but regardless it continued with a different voice joining it.

"_I know right, all she does is trudge through school and then goes back home. I don't think she has any friends too."_

"_I feel kind of bad for her…"_

The voices faded away leaving the usual silence in the air. Konata waited to see if anything else would happen. After a few seconds, she let out a breath she had been holding.

"What the hell?" Konata let the question drift for a moment before turning back to the gate and placing the third magatama in its slot. She took a deep breath and rubbed her forehead. "Alright, now I just need to find the last one. Where could it be?"

"You don't have to worry about that." Konata once again whirled around, waving the flashlight everywhere. There was no way she imagined that voice.

"Who's out there?" she called out, looking for any movement.

"Can you please turn that light off? It's really bright," the voice called out again.

"You can't be serious."

"Just do it, I can't help you unless you turn that light off." Konata stood there for a moment, and then slowly turned the flashlight off. Darkness surrounded Konata and she backed into the gate. She heard footsteps in the distance that drew closer and stopped a ways away.

"So you're the one I'm supposed to help?" The voice asked, "You don't look like much, but looks can't be everything if you made it this far." The voice sounded familiar to Konata, but she couldn't place where she heard it.

"Cut it out, how are you supposed to help me? Wait, are you the one who called me?" Konata felt anger boiling up at the thought of the caller.

"Please, do I sound like that asshole? I just happen to have something you need." It was only now that Konata noticed the speaker was female, but that fact didn't ease Konata's guard a little.

"Oh really, and what would that be?" The voice chuckled before answering.

"I'll give it to you if you answer this question." Konata groaned in annoyance.

"Seriously, we gotta play that game? The quad locks behind me aren't enough?"

"Quit whining, just answer the question." The voice paused to clear its throat before continuing, "Your life is in danger and you have no way of escaping on your own."

"What, like now?" Konata asked sarcastically.

"SHUT UP!" Konata jumped at the sudden loudness, though the voice settled after a moment. "As I was saying, you can't escape on your own, but you can be helped. Catch is, whoever can help you won't be in danger unless they do. Who would you trust your life to more: your friends or your family?"

"You can't be serious, how can I make that kind of choice?" Konata was really annoyed at whoever this was, almost to the point of just marching out there to see who it was.

"All you have to do is answer and I'll give you what you need," the voice replied calmly, "I don't care what you pick."

"And if I say I trust them both?"

"That would be the wrong thing to say, which would mean I would just walk away and leave you to die here. It's a simple question, who do you trust more?"

Konata hated the voice, but pushed it aside to give the matter serious thought. She fiddled with the flashlight and felt the rain grow heavier, drenching her and having her hair fall in her eyes.

'_I know if I was ever in danger, Dad would hop in to protect me without a second thought, and I guess Yui-nesan would do the same since it's her job. Yutaka would probably at least try and…'_ Konata felt water gather in her eyes, but whether it was tears or rain she didn't care, _'I'm not sure what mom would do.'_

She moved the flashlight to the other hand. _'Kagami might help me if it was serious enough. Tsukasa might be scared, but she can pull through if needed. I guess I can say the same for Miyuki.'_ Konata stopped fiddling with the flashlight and held her head in her hands.

'_Why am I questioning my friends, of course they would help me!'_

'_But can you say for certain they would?'_ said some terrible voice in the back of her head.

'_Yes I can!'_

'_But do you _know_? You've admitted several times that your friends are a little odd, who's to say that they'll ditch you to save themselves?'_

'_Shut up, they wouldn't leave me! They're my friends. They wouldn't leave me to die…all alone.'_ Konata sank to her knees and let her arms fall to her sides. She was certain she felt tears this time.

"It's hard isn't it? Judging what others would do when your life is on the line," The voice said almost sympathetically, "In times like that, who can you really trust?" Konata took a few breaths to calm herself down before she answered.

"I guess I'd trust my family more, but who are you to judge?" Konata looked out into the darkness and waited for the voice to answer.

"…I'm not here to judge, I'm here to help," she finally said and after a second something clattered from the darkness and stopped in front of Konata. She picked it up to find it was a jet black magatama. "That will get you out, but you better hurry. Big nasty is coming back."

"What?" Konata asked and looked up from the stone in her hand. Shockingly, Konata heard thunder above her which was followed by a flash of lightning, briefly illuminating the area. It didn't last long, but Konata thought she saw a girl with long black hair. The light also ruined the night vision that Konata had developed in the past few minutes. By the time she finished rubbing her eyes and turned the flashlight back on, the girl was gone. Konata stood up and searched the darkness for a moment, but once she noticed that no one was around she looked at the magatama in her hand and turned to the gate.

After putting the magatama in its slot there was another click, and after another pull revealed the gate was unlocked. At that moment, Konata's phone started giving off a massive amount of static and a roar sounded behind her. She turned back to find the beast from before climbing a building behind her, the red eyes from whatever was on its back locked on her. To make matters worse, several other screams joined the beast's roar. Konata didn't need any more incentive to get moving. She flung the gate open and, after slamming it shut once she was through, proceeded to run as fast as possible down the alley she was in.

The alley, much like the other's that Konata had been down, had several twists and turns. The only difference was there were no divergent alleys here, just turns upon turns of this one alley. There was a crashing behind her that Konata didn't want to think about. Thankfully the farther she ran, the farther away the sound became. Konata was sure she was in the clear when she rounded another corner and suddenly felt a sharp pain in her shoulder.

Something had hit her really hard and Konata fell on her back clutching her shoulder. She was about to stand up when she felt a weight on her chest and a hand clutched her throat. The flashlight, which had rolled away, shone on Konata's attacker.

'_Oh come _on_!'_

"Gotcha. Now for your punishment," the Haruhi monster said dropping its pipe and its other hand around Konata's throat. It then squeezed hard intending to choke the life out of Konata. Konata tried to punch her off, the few blows she managed to land appearing to not do much. 'Haruhi' squeezed harder and Konata started to see darkness clouding her vision.

'_No, I'm not going to die here!'_ Konata thought and started searching for something, _anything_, to help her out. The beast that had been chasing her let off another roar which distracted the monster enough to loosen its grip. At that moment, Konata's hand found the pipe that the monster discarded and swung it at the monster's head, landing a direct hit. The monster fell off of her and Konata took only a moment to catch her breath before dropping the pipe, picking up the flashlight, and started at a run again. Before she rounded the next corner, Konata looked back to see three things: the Haruhi monster had gotten back to its feet, the beast had started to catch up, and the beast did not care what it ate.

Konata rounded two more corners and found herself in a straightaway with a light at the end. She took off toward it, with rain beating down hard and screams and roars behind her. Konata dared to glance back and instantly regretted upon seeing not only the beast, but also dozens of those 'friend monsters' behind her. She returned her focus to the light in front of her, her legs burning and begging for rest. Konata was about halfway there when the siren started again, bringing with it that horrible headache. Konata pushed through it though, the screams and the roars and the siren all pushing her toward her goal which wasn't even 100 feet away.

Konata closed that last bit of distance faster than she thought she could and, for reasons she couldn't fathom, she dove the last few feet into the light. Time seemed to slow down when she did.

She happened to looked back and saw the gaping maw of the beast before light engulfed her.

* * *

><p>Kagami sighed and closed her textbook, deciding that was enough studying for tonight. She got up from her desk and proceeded downstairs to get a snack before bed. She walked into the kitchen where her father was working on something or another for work. Kagami decided a simple apple would suffice for a snack. She also decided to try Konata's cell again before going to bed. Kagami just started walking up the stairs when the front door bell rang.<p>

'_Who could that be at this time of night?'_ Kagami thought as she walked to the door. Her question was answered a second later when the door opened to reveal a certain blue haired otaku, breathing heavily and thoroughly drenched.

"Konata?" Konata didn't answer the question, instead dropping the flashlight in her hand and stumbling forward. "Konata!" Kagami ran forward, dropping the apple, and caught her friend before she hit the ground. Konata, still breathing heavily, grasped at Kagami's shirt before looking her in the eyes.

"Kagami?" she asked. The twin-tailed girl didn't know how to respond, so she settled for a nod. Konata smiled and laughed softly. Kagami turned back to see her father in the doorway behind her before looking back at Konata. "I'm safe," she said, repeating those two words several times before collapsing against Kagami. Kagami almost buckled from the sudden weight, but managed to hold it and lower both herself and Konata to the floor. Her father moved to her side and looked Konata over.

"She's just unconscious," he said and sighed in relief, "It's good it's just that, she looks like she's been through a lot." He looked up at Kagami, "Let's call her father to let him know she's alright and that she'll be staying here tonight." Kagami nodded in agreement.

"She can sleep in my bed for tonight," she said. Her father nodded and slipped his arms underneath Konata to carry her up to Kagami's room.

"She's a little heavier than I thought," he murmured as he walked up the stairs. Kagami waited until her father disappeared from sight before moving to the phone and dialing Konata's house.

* * *

><p><strong>I'm back and this story is <em>not<em> dead. Let me know what you think, I can't get better unless I know what I'm doing wrong. Ok? Thanks.**


	10. A brief break

Konata slept for a long time and when she opened her eyes she was nearly blinded by the light. She had been lying on her back and when she tried to roll onto her side a shot of pain passed through her shoulder. She sat up and grasped her shoulder, letting out a hiss and rubbing it. When the feeling died down, she took the time to look around.

'_Kagami's room, how did I get here?'_ she thought. Slowly the events of last night came back to her and a shiver ran through her. "I don't even know what to think about it," she whispered to herself and continued to rub her shoulder. Her thoughts were interrupted when the bedroom door opened and a woman peeked inside.

"Oh, you're awake," she said and opened the door wider. Konata recognized the woman as Kagami's mother. "How are you feeling? You looked terrible the last time I checked on you."

"I'm fine, just a little tired," Konata said and looked at the sunlight streaming through the window, "How long have I been asleep?" Kagami's mom put a finger to her chin in thought.

"Well, I think Kagami said you came around 10:30 last night and it's almost 11 now, so a little over 12 hours."

'_Heh, that's probably the longest I've slept in a while,'_ Konata thought to herself. She would have laughed if another thought of something. "What about school?"

"Kagami and Tsukasa said they would explain your situation. You can go back as soon as you're feeling better." Konata let out a sigh of relief, glad at least one thing was going her way. Kagami's mom walked further into the room and sat on a chair. "If you don't mind, what happened last night? You had us all worried when you just disappeared." Konata froze up a little and scratched her head in thought.

"Well…" _'Yeah, go ahead and tell her you got pulled into another world and almost got eaten by monsters. _That_ will make you look sane.'_ "I guess I went for a walk without realizing it." Kagami's mom gave her a suspicious look.

"On a school night?" she asked. Konata shrugged in response, causing Kagami's mom to sigh. "Ok, what about your shoulder? It looks like you were bitten by something." Konata looked at her shoulder and thought feverishly for an explanation.

"I was attacked by a dog," she finally said.

"A dog?"

"It was a big dog."

"How did you get all wet?" Konata noticed that the bed sheets were soaked. She thought back to that cold rain falling on her, the howls of creatures chasing after her in the distance.

"Sprinklers." Kagami's mom looked like she was going to ask more, but instead stood up.

"Well, I guess all that matters is that you're safe. Try and get some rest ok?" Konata nodded, Kagami's mom returned it and left the room. Konata fell back on the bed and tried to go to sleep for a few minutes. When it became clear that she wouldn't be able to she got off the bed and stretched a little, which caused her shoulder to ache. After a moment of rubbing the pain out of her shoulder, Konata walked over to the window.

'_I never thought I'd be so happy to see the sun,'_ Konata thought as she looked outside. This good mood didn't last long when she saw something that she had hoped not to see.

Fog.

Konata stared for a while as it slowly drifted past the window. Once the implications of the fogs presence hit Konata, she did what any rational person would do and ran to the bathroom sick to her stomach. One locked door later and Konata was emptying whatever was in her stomach into the toilet. After a minute of retching Konata finished and tried to catch her breath. There was a knock on the door.

"Konata are you alright?" Konata coughed a little before answering.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." She coughed again, "Hey, what's the weather like today?" _'Oh please let it be anything other than-'_

"It's nice and sunny today, like it's been for the last week or so. Why?"

'…_dammit.'_ "I was just wondering. I'll be out in a second."

"Alright, I hope you'll be alright." Konata waited for Kagami's mom to walk away before retching into the bowl again.

* * *

><p>'<em>What kind of crap is this?'<em> Konata thought looking out at the fog rolling by outside, _'This is _not_ what that jackass on the phone said! He said get to Kagami's house and you'll be fine, __**this is not fine!**__'_ Konata then perked a little as a horrible thought occurred to her. _'Oh no, please tell me this isn't going by Shattered Memories rules where I can leave the dark world but it can come back at any moment.'_ Konata shivered and closed the curtains. _'I gotta get my mind of this or else I'll go mad!'_ Konata turned to inspect the room for something to do. Luckily Konata found just thing in Kagami's DS.

"Ooh, you didn't tell me you had Rhythm Tengoku, Kagami," Konata whispered as she opened the DS and turned it on. "I'm sure you won't mind if I kill some time with this," Konata checked the time to find it was around noon, "I have a few hours till she gets home. She won't mind."

* * *

><p>Kagami and Tsukasa had just gotten off the train and began walking home.<p>

"I hope Konata is doing better, she looked really bad this morning," Tsukasa said with worry evident in her voice.

"She's been out cold since last night and I'm pretty sure that even someone like her will be awake at this time of day," Kagami said. "I just hope she doesn't whine about the homework she has."

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me to get that for her." Kagami nodded and they didn't talk for a minute. "So, where do you think Konata went last night?" Kagami sighed.

"I don't know; I'm just wondering how she got soaked so badly, it wasn't even raining or anything. Sometimes I wonder how she does those kinds of things." They arrived home and walked inside. "We're home." Their mom walked in a few seconds later.

"Welcome home, how was your day?"

"It was fine. Is Konata awake yet?"

"Yes, she woke up a few hours ago. She's still a little sick though, so be careful." Kagami nodded and started up the stairs, Tsukasa following behind. When they got close to Kagami's room, they heard music coming from it and when they opened the door they found Konata casually tapping away at Kagami's DS.

"Well you don't seem too sick," Kagami said. Konata looked up at the twins.

"Oh hey guys, school over already?" she asked managing to split her attention between the game and conversation.

"We just got out," Tsukasa said, "Are you feeling better?" Konata nodded.

"Yeah, I'm feeling much better than before." The music from the game stopped and Konata looked at the screen, "Oh I'm done, and another superb."

"What are you playing?" Kagami asked.

"Rhythm Tengoku."

"Oh, what'd you think? It's kind of hard."

"Yeah, but I like a challenge. Check out how I did." Konata handed the DS to Kagami, who nearly dropped it at seeing how well she did.

"How long have you been playing this?"

"A few hours."

"And you got perfects on almost _all the games?_"

"Yep." Kagami looked at Konata and her relaxed cat grin.

"…You're not human, you know that?"

"Aw, you're too kind Kagamin."

"Whatever, are you done with this?"

"Sure, what's up?" Kagami turned off the DS and was about to talk when Tsukasa spoke up.

"Oh, I got today's homework here," Tsukasa dug through her bag and pulled out the homework and handed it to Konata.

"Great, thanks," Konata said and set the homework aside. Kagami sat at her desk and looked at Konata.

"So what exactly brought you to our house last night?" Kagami asked. Konata froze up a little at the question.

"I just went for a walk and got a little lost is all," she said.

"You went for a walk?" Konata nodded, "A walk that ended with you soaked to the bone and scared out of your mind? Pardon me if I don't really buy that."

"…But it's true," Konata said looking away.

"How did you get so wet anyway?"

"…Sprinklers."

"Seriously?" Konata nodded, still unable to meet Kagami's eyes. "And the total fear and the constant 'I'm safe?" Konata looked up at Kagami and for a split second she saw one of those horrid monsters with their dark eyes and sharp teeth lunging at her instead of Kagami. She managed to suppress the urge to jump two feet into the air and just looked away from Kagami.

"I don't want to talk about it," she said.

"What? What does that even mean?" Kagami asked.

"It means I don't want to talk about it." Images of monsters and close calls rushed through Konata's head and she subconsciously rubbed at her shoulder.

"Hey I didn't notice it until now, but your shoulder's hurt. How did that happen?"

"…I got bit by a dog."

"What, there was a dog running around that can cause a bite that big?"

"…Yep."

"Oh, that must have been terrifying for you!" Tsukasa said.

_The figure on the beast's back turned its head toward Konata, bright red eyes shining from under the hood. The beast turned its head toward Konata and, after a second of growling, let out an ear splitting roar and charged._

"I don't want to talk about it."

"_Who do you trust more: your friends or your family?"_

"Why not, it can't be as bad as your saying can it?" Kagami asked.

"I SAID I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT, DAMMIT!" Kagami and Tsukasa flinched back at Konata's yelling. They sat like that for a while and Konata turned away from her friends. "Sorry, I'm kinda tired."

"I'm sorry," Tsukasa said.

"If it really bothers you that much, I'll lay off," Kagami said, "So how are you feeling now?" Konata turned back before answering.

"I'm feeling fine. Did I miss anything that happened at school?"

"Nah not really. Wait, there was that thing with-" The conversation continued on with the occasional switch in topic. Soon enough Konata had forgotten entirely about the fog outside and was glad to simply be chatting like normal.

* * *

><p>"And it smelled really stinky after that," Tsukasa said and the three of them shared a laugh, which was interrupted by Kagami's mom walking in.<p>

"Konata are you feeling well enough to go home or are you going to be staying tonight too?" she asked.

"No I'm feeling fine, I can go back home," Konata answered.

"Well it's almost dark out. If you're going to go, it should be soon."

"Ok." Kagami's mom left the room and Konata got up and stretched, being careful of her shoulder.

"Do you need any help getting back?" Kagami asked. "You still look a little weak."

"Aw, are you worried about me Kagamin~?" Konata asked teasingly.

"Of course I am," Kagami said with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Well as long as you're offering, of course you can help me back." Konata then looked away and said more seriously, "I'd like to have some company on the way back anyway."

"Alright, let me get my jacket and we can go." Konata nodded and lead the way out of the room, Kagami following behind her. After the two got their jackets on, they headed outside and started toward the train station. Konata was glad to see that the streets were intact and that there were people outside doing last minute errands. The light fog did little to block the view of the sky, dyed orange thanks to the setting sun.

"We've been having really nice weather lately. I'll bet you're glad for that huh?" Kagami asked.

"Yeah, it is nice," Konata replied flatly. She blew at some fog nearby and watched it swirl. "Hey Kagami, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what's up?" Konata looked down at the street as she contemplated how to phrase her question.

"Well…if I ever found myself in a bad situation, would you help me out of it?"

"What, like getting into debt from buying too much manga?" Kagami asked with a playful grin.

"I'm being serious," Konata said and turned to Kagami to show how serious she was. Kagami's grin disappeared as she got what the question meant.

"Of course I would. Why would you even ask that?"

"Even if it meant putting yourself at risk?"

"You're my friend, if you're in trouble I'd jump to help you in a heartbeat." It took Kagami a second to realize Konata wasn't following, so she stopped and turned to her. "Konata?" Kagami barely got the word out when Konata grabbed her in a large hug. Kagami blushed at the sudden action. "Konata, what are you-?"

"Thanks, I needed to hear that," Konata whispered and let her friend go. The rest of the walk to the station was mostly quiet. They made it to the station without incident and boarded a train to Konata's house. There was only a couple other people in the car they were in and Kagami could tell that Konata was nervous about being on the train.

"Are you feeling alright?" Kagami asked. Konata jumped a little at the question.

"Huh?"

"It's just that you seem a little antsy. You've ridden the train hundreds of times before, what's wrong with this ride?"

_The siren resounded throughout the train. Konata fell to her knees clutching her head, feeling as if it was going to split open._

"…It's kind of complicated," Konata said. Kagami gave her a questioning look, but didn't push it which Konata was grateful for. The conversation died pretty quickly and both of them fished around for some kind of topic. They didn't get the chance since they reached their stop and got off the train. After a few minutes of walking, Kagami spoke up.

"Why are you doing that?"

"Doing what?"

"You've been swatting at the air ever since we left the station." Kagami repeated the motion Konata had been doing. Konata flinched a little.

"Really?" Konata asked and Kagami nodded, "Oh, ok." _'Ugh, this stupid fog is getting to me. Keep it together girl!"_

"Are you going to be alright?" Kagami asked.

"Yeah, I'm just tired. I think I might actually go to bed early today," Konata said.

"Alright, I'm just a little worried about you."

"Thanks Kagami, that's actually making me feel a little better." Kagami smiled at that and before they knew it they had arrived at Konata's house. They walked up to the door and Konata knocked on it. After a few seconds, the door opened and Konata found herself being hugged tightly by her dad.

"Konata, I'm so glad you're safe! Don't ever do something like that again, ok?"

"Ok Dad, I'm sorry! You're going to crush me if you keep hugging me like this." Soujirou let Konata go and scratched a cheek with a finger.

"Still, if you're going to go to a friend's house, let me know beforehand ok?" Konata nodded and turned to Kagami.

"Thanks for walking me home Kagami."

"It was no problem," Kagami said and turned away, "I gotta go home now. I'll see you later." Kagami waved goodbye which was returned by Konata and Soujirou. When Kagami was far enough away, Konata and Soujirou walked inside.

"Are you hungry at all?" Soujirou asked.

"Nah, I'm not really hungry. I'll just grab a snack and go to bed soon." Soujirou nodded and Konata walked to the kitchen, got a snack, and walked to her room. She shut the door and flopped down on her bed chewing on her snack.

"_Ugh, I said I was tired but now I can't go to sleep. I hate it when that happens.'_ Konata sat up and started thinking about what to do. _'I guess I'll play a game for a while,'_ Konata thought and looked at her computer. _'Nah, I'm not feeling the MMO today.'_ Konata smiled, moved town to the floor and scooted over to her Playstation 2. She finished her snack and looked over her games.

"Let's see, how about…" Her eyes landed on one case that stood out from the others, "Hello, what are you?" The case was a simple black game case, no artwork or anything. Konata picked it up and opened the case to find a simple CD with no artwork either. It looked like a CD you would buy in packs of 20 at a store and had two things written on it in some kind of marker: 'S.S.' and 'PS2.'

"I don't remember getting you," Konata said to the game and looked at her Playstation, "Well, let's see what you are." Konata opened the console, took out 'Silent Hill 2', and replaced it with the new game. Once 'Silent Hill 2' was back in its case Konata turned on both the TV and the console and waited for the game to start. Oddly, the game seemed to start almost immediately, skipping past the title screen and showing a hallway. Konata picked up the controller and tested a couple buttons with no clear response. The camera moved down the hallway, showing off room numbers and various papers on a nearby bulletin board.

'_Is this supposed to be school? I don't get it, what kind of game is this?'_

The lights shut off, plunging the whole hall into darkness, although Konata could still see for a few feet. The camera stopped in front of a door just as it opened and someone stepped out. The camera only showed what the girl was wearing for the moment, but Konata recognized the uniform.

'_That's our school uniform! What in the hell is-?'_ That thought was stopped when the camera looked up at the girl. Konata dropped the controller in shock at the girl's blue eyes, short lilac hair, and bright yellow bow.

"Tsukasa?" Konata all but yelled and leaned closer to the screen. Tsukasa stepped into the dark hallway and looked around terrified.

"Hello?" she said into the darkness. When no one answered she started shaking and walked down the hallway, her hands balled up against her chest. While she walked, a kind of scuffling sounded behind her and she turned around. "Is anyone there?" No one answered. Tsukasa started backing down the hallway, her eyes narrowed in fright. She had only taken a few steps when she bumped into something and turned around.

She found herself face to face with someone wearing a blood red sweatshirt, the hood up over their head. The face was obscured with only glowing red eyes shining through.

It was holding a blood stained meat cleaver.

Tsukasa barely had enough time to scream before it raised the cleaver and brought it down. Konata was spared the sight of the impact, which didn't help at all since the screen was splashed with red before going black. Konata stared at the TV for what seemed like hours before she finally got up and rushed to the bathroom.

* * *

><p>"I think what he did at the end was kind of harsh though," Kagami said. The two of them were waiting in Tsukasa's classroom until school started proper. Tsukasa stared at Kagami before giggling a little.<p>

"Um, what were we talking about again?" Tsukasa asked. Kagami sighed a little.

"Ok, I was watching this show last night and-" Kagami was interrupted when the door opened and Konata looked frantically around the room. "Hey Konata, over here." Konata looked over and walked over. "How are you feeling today Kona-"

"Tsukasa, did anything happen to you last night?" Konata asked forcefully.

"H-huh?"

"Did anything strange happen to you last night?"

"Whoa, slow down for a moment. What are you talking about?" Kagami asked. Konata took a couple breaths.

"Ok. Tsukasa, what did you do last night?" Konata asked more calmly.

"Well," Tsukasa put a finger to her chin in thought, "after you and Kagami left, I helped mom make dinner. Kagami came home a little while after that, and then we all ate dinner, I did some homework and I went to bed."

"And nothing else happened?"

"No, why?" Konata let out a huge sigh and sat down.

"I had a pretty bad nightmare last night and I was a little worried," Konata explained.

"Those nightmares again?" Kagami asked, "dare I ask what this one was about?"

"It's wasn't much, it just spooked me bad." Despite the conversation's tone, Konata was smiling with her usual grin.

"I have to use the restroom," Tsukasa said and stood up.

"Alright, try not to take too long," Konata said. She waited until Tsukasa was out of the classroom and turned to Kagami with a serious look her face, "Kagami, we need to talk." Kagami jumped a little at the sudden movement.

"Jeez, what's the deal?" Kagami asked. Konata started digging through her bag.

"Remember when you dropped me off home last night?" Konata looked up to see Kagami nodding, "Well, when I got home I decided to play a game before bed."

"Of course," Kagami commented.

"Right, well I was looking through my game stack when I found this." Konata took the game case from earlier out of her bag and handed it to Kagami.

"You brought a game to school? Why would you do that?" Kagami opened the case and inspected the disc. "What kind of game is this?"

"I have no idea, I just put it in the console, saw…some things, and then it blanked out."

"Not worth the money eh," Kagami teased and handed the case back to Konata.

"Yeah, if I actually paid for it, it just showed up at my house last night out of nowhere." Konata put the case back in her bag and rested her head in her arms.

"Ok, so what's the punch line of this story?" Konata didn't do anything for a few moments, but then she threw her arms into the air.

"It's a _blank disc!_" she yelled.

"Will you keep it down? What do you mean it's a blank disc?"

"I tried playing it again this morning, but nothing happened. I played a game on a disc that doesn't have a game on it!" Konata buried her head in her arms, "Either the world's gone insane, or I have."

"Oh don't be so hard on yourself, I think you went insane long ago."

"Please tell me that was supposed to be a joke, because right now I might believe it." That put Kagami on edge.

"Hey, are you feeling alright? Maybe you shouldn't be in school right now." Konata lifted her head and rubbed her forehead.

"I'm alright, I'm just a little stressed. I should be fine by the end of the day."

"If you say so." Kagami wasn't convinced by what her friend said, but she let it drop for now. The door opened and Tsukasa walked in.

"I'm back, did I miss anything?" Tsukasa asked. Konata almost immediately put on her usual expression.

"Nah, we were just chatting," she said.

'_How is she able to do that? I really worry about her sometimes,'_ Kagami thought.

* * *

><p>The school day passed without much incident, or at least nothing that doesn't usually happen all the time. Konata, Tsukasa, and Miyuki were waiting at the front doors when Kagami walked toward them.<p>

"Sorry about that, you ready to go?"

"Yeah, let's go," Konata said and the four of them started walking. "I have to make a small trip to buy something, any of you want to come along?"

"I really don't have time to help you look for manga," Kagami said, "what are you looking for anyway?"

"I'm not getting a manga, unless something catches my eye. I got something else in mind."

"…"

"…"

"What?" Kagami looked at Konata in complete surprise. "You're going to shop for something besides manga? Who are you and what have you done with Konata?"

"Jeez, calm down. It's not anything big."

"I can imagine. So what is it: a game, a DVD, or-?"

"Flashlights." Konata said with a hint of pride.

"Eh? Why are you buying flashlights?"

"Ah, poor little Kagamin," Konata patted Kagami's head, "A flashlight is one of the most important survival tools you can have. It's an utterly indispensable tool when fighting the hordes of evil!"

"You've been playing horror games too much. Anyway, I still can't go."

"I would go, but I have some errands to take care of myself. I'm sorry," Miyuki said.

"It's fine Miyuki-san. What about you Tsukasa?" Tsukasa jumped a little since she was staring into space.

"W-what?"

"Are you free today?"

"Oh, no, I have some things to do. Sorry."

"You've been kind of distracted today. Is something up?" Kagami asked.

"Oh, no I'm fine! I just have a lot on my mind," Tsukasa giggled a little before staring into the distance again.

"Alright, well I'd better get going. I'll see you later." Konata waved to the others and walked away. Tsukasa was so focused on what she was looking at she didn't notice Kagami and Miyuki walking away.

"Hey Tsukasa are you coming?"

"Oh, coming."

* * *

><p>"Huh, I didn't think these would be so cheap," Konata said to herself. She was in a store she hadn't been in before checking out some clip on flashlights. "I might be able to get two of them. It'll cut into my manga money, but screw it this is more important." Konata grabbed two of the flashlights and was on her way to the register when she realized what she said.<p>

'_Kagami was right, that _does _sound weird coming from me. I gotta get over this soon.'_

* * *

><p>It was lunchtime the next day and Kagami walked into Konata's classroom and made her way over to the others.<p>

"Hey guys," she said with a wave.

"Hey, what's up?" Konata asked as Kagami sat down. Kagami was about to talk when she noticed what Konata was wearing.

"Really? You brought one of those to school?" she asked pointing to the flashlight Konata had clipped onto her uniform.

"You can never be too careful Kagami," Konata said and took a bite out of the cornet she had for lunch. Kagami sighed and rubbed her forehead.

"Ok Konata, this is getting a little out of hand. You have a couple nightmares and you turn completely paranoid? Please tell me you get where I'm coming from."

"Don't forget the walk."

"That's not the point Konata! This better not be some elaborate prank."

"Why would you say that, Kagami? I wouldn't go that far just to pull a prank." Konata bitterly bit into her cornet.

"Yeah you're right, sorry." Konata waved it away and looked at Tsukasa.

"Hey, you ok Tsukasa?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"You've been spacing off a lot more than usual. What's on your mind?" Tsukasa thought for a moment before answering.

"Um, what was the weather supposed to be like today again?" she asked.

"Well," Miyuki started, "I believe it was supposed to be sunny with a slight chance of rain in the evening." None of them noticed Konata shiver slightly.

"Why does the weather matter?" Kagami asked. Tsukasa looked out the window and tilted her head slightly.

"I just didn't expect it to get so foggy," she said. If it was at all possible, Konata would have shattered like glass at that simple statement.

"What do you mean 'foggy'? It's as sunny as it could be," Kagami said. Konata looked out the window and saw the fog, as well as something much worse.

'_It's thicker than it was this morning.'_ Konata quickly finished her cornet, her stomach already acting up.

"It is? That's weird," Tsukasa remarked as she looked out the window.

"Oh my, are you feeling well?" Miyuki asked Konata, who was clutching her stomach and her head.

"I think I'm going to be sick!" she said before standing up and running out the room.

"Konata, wait!" Tsukasa said and quickly followed her.

"Wait!" Kagami said as she and Miyuki also gave chase.

* * *

><p>Konata slammed into the bathroom door and stumbled through one of the stall doors.<p>

"Argh, my head feels like it's going to split open!" she yelled and collapsed against the wall. She hardly had enough time to register anything else as the pain in her head grew too much and she blacked out. A few seconds later, Tsukasa entered the restroom and moved toward an open stall.

"Konata, are you alright?" she asked worriedly and opened the door. But instead of a toilet and her friend, she only found a large hole that covered most of the floor and some of the wall. "What, what's this hole doing here?" she looked down into the hole, pitch black from the depth. Tsukasa trembled at the sight and was about to step away from it when something pushed her from behind.

All she could do was scream as she tumbled into the darkness.

When Kagami and Miyuki entered a few seconds later, they only found an empty bathroom.

No Konata.

No Tsukasa.

And certainly no hole.

* * *

><p><span>I honestly have no idea how much a standard Silent Hill flashlight would cost, so I'm just guessing on the price. Not much else to say about this.<span>


	11. Tsukasa's turn

Tsukasa tumbled through the blackness that stretched around her. After what felt like several minutes she finally saw some light and landed in water. She hadn't prepared for it and quickly swam to the surface and took a deep breath when she broke through. Tsukasa wiped the water from her eyes and looked around, finding herself to be in a swimming pool, and swam to the edge. The water was freezing, which gave Tsukasa more than enough incentive to get out. She stood at the edge of the pool shivering and looked around some more.

"Where am I?" she asked the empty room. The area that housed the pool was fairly large and one of the walls was made entirely out of windows. There was nothing but thick white fog outside of them though. Tsukasa saw a bulletin board and walked over to it, her arms hugging herself to try to warm herself. The first thing she saw only served to confuse her more than she already was.

'_Ryouou High pool rules.'_

"What? How did I fall into the pool?" Tsukasa looked around and saw some towels hanging from hooks. She walked to them and found most of them were stained from dirt, although one of them was relatively clean. She dried herself off as best as she could, and when that was done she hung it back up and started walking to the door. She reached out to the door and was halfway there when she heard faint music. She looked around for the source and saw something pink on one of the white chairs.

'_That's my cell phone!'_ she thought and picked it up to find it indeed was hers, _'I thought I left it in my bag.'_ The cell phone continued to ring, and the caller ID said 'unknown'. Tsukasa gulped, flipped it open, and held it up to her ear. "Hello?" she asked.

"…"

"Hello, is anyone there?"

"…Who's this?" Tsukasa jumped a little at the voice.

"I-I'm Tsukasa Hiiragi. I fell down a hole and-"

"Tsukasa Hiiragi, as in the younger of the Hiiragi twins?"

"Y-yes."

"Huh, now that's interesting." Tsukasa was about to say something else when the line went dead.

"Hello?" she asked, receiving only a dial tone in reply. Tsukasa closed the phone and found herself close to tears. Tsukasa took a few breaths to calm herself before she opened the phone and tried calling Kagami.

She got a busy tone.

Miyuki's was next. She got a busy tone.

She tried Konata's. Busy tone.

Tsukasa sighed sadly and put the phone in her pocket. She walked to the door and walked through it to find herself in a school hallway. A nearby bulletin board confirmed she was in her high school and, with another nervous swallow, Tsukasa started walking.

The classroom numbers showed she was on the first floor, so Tsukasa decided to see what the front door was like. When she got there and looked outside, she saw that the sidewalk fell to nothingness just before the fog made things impossible to see. Tsukasa heard a sound behind her and turned around.

"Is anyone there?" she called out, but received no reply. She was going to call out again, but heard a small thud against the door behind her. She turned around to find a girl in a high school uniform leaning against the door. Tsukasa recognized the girl thanks to her long lilac hair.

"Kagami? What are you doing here?" Tsukasa asked and stepped closer to the door. That was enough for the girl outside to stop what she was doing and hit the door with enough force to crack the glass. 'Kagami' looked up at Tsukasa, who backed away in fright at the actions and the sight of black eyes and sharp teeth. Tsukasa held her breath as the twisted version of her sister struggled with the door and ran off when it didn't open. Tsukasa ran as fast as she could away from the doors, afraid to look behind her to find something following her.

When Tsukasa was far enough away, she tried to open several doors but found most of them to be locked.

'_Oh, what's going on? Why did Kagami look like that?'_ she thought to herself. One of the classrooms was opened, but no one was inside. _'Am I all alone? Where is everyone?'_ Tsukasa thought she heard footsteps behind her and she panicked a little and rushed into the first open door she found, which turned out to be the teacher's lounge. She closed the door and braced herself against it in case something tried to get through.

"Don't move!" Someone cried behind her. Tsukasa slowly turned to see a girl around her age holding a fire extinguisher over her head. Tsukasa started trembling, which caused the girl to sigh in relief and lower the extinguisher. "Oh thank god, you're human. Lock the door, quickly!" Tsukasa did so and the girl put the extinguisher on the ground and leaned against a desk. "You gave me quite the scare when you burst in like that."

"I-I'm sorry," Tsukasa said. The girl waved it away and continued to try and calm herself down. Tsukasa decided that this would be her best chance to figure out what was going on. "Um, do you know what's going on? What's that fog outside?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. I blacked out one day and woke up with everything like this. You're the first human I've seen in about a week."

"A week? You've been here that long?"

"I think, but time moves strangely here. I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself yet." She leaned off the desk and walked over to Tsukasa, "You can call me Mai."

"Oh, n-nice to meet you, I'm Tsukasa." Tsukasa bowed slightly and Mai returned it.

"Well, I guess we better find a way out of here," Mai said and walked closer to the door. "I thought I saw something like that a while ago, but I didn't-"

The window suddenly blasted open, spraying glass over the area, with Mai suffering some minor cuts from the glass. Mai stumbled away from the door and the arm that had broken through it. Tsukasa was frozen at the sight of the girl behind the door, her face covered in horrible scars, her eyes staring blankly, and at that knife that was being pointed at her.

"Intruders detected," she said monotonously, "all intruders must be eliminated."

"Dammit, they found us already?" Mai whispered and turned to Tsukasa, "Listen, we have to get through her to get to safety. How fast can you run?"

"Um, average I guess," Tsukasa answered.

"Ok, when I open the door stay as close to me as you can. There's a room on the second floor we can use for a while there." Mai picked up the fire extinguisher and hefted it over her head. "Are you ready?" Tsukasa nodded and moved closer to Mai. "Ok, here we go."

Mai ran to the door and tossed the extinguisher as hard as she could at the monster's face. When the monster fell out of sight Mai quickly unlocked and ran out the door with Tsukasa following. Tsukasa saw the monster was already getting up and stared at her with no emotion on its face.

"What are you waiting for? Run!" Tsukasa followed the instructions and ran after Mai, who had started running up some stairs. Tsukasa started running up the stairs when a knife suddenly embedded itself in the wall not even a few inches in front of her face. She let out a scream and continued running up the stairs, catching sight of the monster catching up to them. Tsukasa caught up with Mai, who was looking frantically down the halls.

"Dangit, which way was 2-B again?" she asked.

"It's this way," Tsukasa answered and ran down one of the halls. Tsukasa dared to look back and thankfully found the monster hadn't followed far enough yet. The pair rounded a corner and slowed down as they approached class 2-B. Mai pulled on the door but it didn't budge.

"What, why is it locked?" Mai yelled and pulled harder on the door, "It wasn't locked the last time I came here!" The pair heard footsteps approaching rapidly and the pair turned to the corner they had just rounded. "Oh crap this isn't good."

They were so focused on the footsteps they didn't notice the faint click of the door unlocking and open until they were thrown into the classroom. The fall knocked some wind out of them and only barely heard the door lock again before they both felt a weight on them and hands over their mouths.

"Shh." That quiet voice in Tsukasa's ear was enough to have her freeze with fright. Nothing happened for the next half minute, save some faint talking outside the room. Another half minute passed before someone sighed and the pressure and hand came off them both. "It looks like we're in the clear. You alright?" Tsukasa looked back into a face framed by blue hair.

"Konata!" Tsukasa bolted up from her prone position to embrace her otaku friend. "I was so worried! Where have you been?"

"Calm down Tsukasa, I've only been here for the last few minutes." Tsukasa let Konata go and Konata started looking over Tsukasa's face. "Still, I can't believe you're here too. I was afraid this would happen."

"You two know each other?" Mai asked standing up. Konata turned to Mai and walked over to her.

"Sorry, I didn't notice you there. My name's Konata."

"I'm Mai." Konata's eyes twinkled at that and laughed a little.

"Really, well in that case it's a pleasure to meet you Minase-san." Tsukasa stared blankly and Mai sighed.

"Well, I can tell this is going to be interesting, and even worse I got what you were referencing." Mai sighed again but smiled after a second. "Still, I'm glad there's at least one other person alive here. What were you doing in here anyway?"

"I was just chatting with a new friend. Wanna meet 'em?" Konata leaned in closer to Mai, who backed up a step.

"Uh, sure?"

"Is it someone like us?" Tsukasa asked hopefully.

"Um, not really. Hold just hold on a second and let me get 'em up." Konata walked to the teacher's desk and ducked behind it. Mai and Tsukasa walked to the desk and waited for a moment.

"Why exactly do you have to get them up?" Mai asked and leaned over the desk. Suddenly a black eyed horror lunged up at her from behind the desk, causing Mai and Tsukasa to stumble back to the floor in fright. It fell on top of the desk and stared at them unmoving. Konata stood up and stretched a little.

"Man, these things are a lot heavier than they look," Konata said out loud. When she looked at the two of them staring at the monster, she couldn't help but feel some measure of pride. "Don't tell me I caused a jump scare, that's actually kind of cool."

"Shut it otaku!" Mai shouted and stood up, "And why is that thing behind a desk anyway?"

"It was like that when I got here," Konata said. "Hey, are you ok Tsukasa?"

"W-why does it look like Kagami?" Tsukasa asked shaking with terror. Konata crouched to get a better view of the monster's face and ran the hair through her fingers.

"Silent Hill monsters are usually symbolic of something, though I really have no idea what this is supposed to mean."

"I've never got to get a look at them before. I've always been too busy running for my life from them. Who's Kagami anyway?"

"It's my big sis," Tsukasa said and scooted closer to the monster. "Why does she look like this?"

"I don't know, all of them look like that," Konata answered, "But that's not what worries me."

"Oh really, and what does worry you about it?" Mai asked.

"This was already dead when I found it, so what killed it?" Mai closed her eyes in thought.

"I don't feel too well," Tsukasa said and moved to a corner away from the desk.

"Most likely one of the other monsters," Mai said, "I remember seeing a nasty one with a meat cleaver wandering around." Konata shivered and shook her head.

"I don't think it was that one. Look at its neck." Konata pointed at the monster's neck and Mai noticed that its throat was torn out, with small trails of dried blood leading away from it.

"Yeesh, is that a bite? What could have made that?" Mai asked. Konata rubbed her shoulder a little.

"I have a good idea, but that just raises the question of why they would attack each other. They never did that before."

"So you have been here before?"

"Yeah, it was a few days ago." Konata looked back at Tsukasa who was standing uneasily clenching her stomach, "We should probably get out of here. Any ideas?"

"I came in through the front door, but when I checked there again the path had fallen away," Mai said, "And I'm fairly certain there's no other viable exit that's safe."

"Where haven't you checked?" Konata asked walking over to her desk.

"The roof and the basement, if there is one. You aren't suggesting…?"

"Every possibility can be real here, and with how this world works we may find an elevator or stairs that lead down and out of here." Konata knelt down to look into the desk and smiled at something. "And aren't you a little beauty."

"What'd you find?" Mai asked and walked over as well. Konata reached into the desk and pulled out a small object.

"It's a key!" she exclaimed and showed it off triumphantly, "It probably opens a door somewhere."

"Yeah, keys tend to do that," Mai said flatly. Konata huffed a little, stuck the key into a pocket, and looked at Tsukasa.

"Hey we're going to go now Tsukasa," Konata called over.

"Ok, I'll be right behind you," Tsukasa weakly said back. Konata walked over and patted Tsukasa on the back a little. "Thanks Konata."

"I'm not so hot on the idea of going out there. What if we run into one of those things?" Mai commented.

"That's what running is for," Konata said.

"I suppose, but I would at the very least like something heavy to swing. Does this school have a kendo club or something?"

"I don't know, why?"

"I'm going to see if I can find where they keep something like that," Mai said and opened the door to the hallway.

"That's not a good idea. Splitting up is a sure fire way to get yourself killed," Konata said and reached out to Mai.

"So is sticking together. I still need to find my friend anyway, so you can just focus on finding a way out of here." Mai shut the door just as Konata was about to say something else.

"Ugh, what a stubborn girl. I hope she'll be alright." Konata turned to Tsukasa and pointed at the door, "Come on, we might as well find the door to fit this key."

* * *

><p>"So… you've been here before?" Tsukasa asked. She had to admire Konata a little, if she was scared at all she wasn't showing it.<p>

"Well, yeah. Do you remember the night I showed up at your house completely drenched and scared out of my wits?" Konata asked making a twirling motion with her hand.

"You were here before that?" Tsukasa guessed.

"Mhmm and trust me, right now this place is being nice. Once we cross over to the Dark World we're in for a world of pain."

"Dark World?" Tsukasa asked, her voice trembling in fear.

"I guess I have a bit of explaining to do," Konata said and stopped at a set of stairs, "Do you want to go to the roof or the basement first?"

"Um, t-the roof. I don't like dark basements."

"Alright, top to bottom. I like it." Konata started climbing the stairs and snapped her fingers. "Oh yeah, I nearly forgot," she whispered and reached into a pocket to pull out a flashlight, "This is for you."

"Oh, thank you," Tsukasa said taking the flashlight and clipping it to her skirt. "So what did you mean by 'Dark World'?"

"Well, the way I see it this place acts a lot like a Silent Hill game, and all those games have a very structured system of worlds." Konata looked back at Tsukasa and guessed she had lost her. "Alright, let's simplify it a little. Imagine a stack of three pancakes-"

"You know, I always like pancakes with some cherries and a little bit of syrup," Tsukasa interrupted.

"Really? I usually eat them with some butter and syrup. How does Kagamin eat hers?"

"She doesn't eat them often, but she usually does what I do, except she puts whipped cream on it and uses blueberry syrup."

"Huh, I'll have to file that away for later." Konata reached the door to the roof and opened it, the outside fog almost immediately flowing inside. There wasn't much to see on the roof, more or less due to the fog, but the two girls could confirm that there was not much of a way out ground level.

"I wonder how Miyuki eats pancakes," Tsukasa asked.

"If… _when_ we get out of here we can ask her," Konata answered. "Ugh, I lost my train of thought, what were we talking about?"

"Pancakes and the Dark World?" Tsukasa said uncertainly.

"Ah right! Imagine that the pancakes represent the worlds I'm talking about, stacked on top of one another. The top pancake is the real world, where we come from and live our regular lives. You following so far?"

"Mhmm," Tsukasa answered with a nod, "And I think I saw something over there."

"Well let's go see what it is," Konata said and started toward the other side of the roof, "Anyway the middle pancake would be the Fog World, which is where we are now."

"Why is there fog here?" Tsukasa asked.

"Well, the Silent Hill series is big into psychological horror and almost everything is symbolic of something. I think this fog represents confusion and the like, since it serves to hide monsters and any dangerous environments."

"That's… really deep Kona-chan."

"It's fitting enough, I have no idea what's going on." They reached the end of the roof and after a quick look around they found something.

"It's a… journal?" Tsukasa asked and held up a regular looking journal, some small specks of red dotting the front cover.

"Excellent, a conveniently placed note!" Konata exclaimed and took the book from Tsukasa's hands, "Let's see what we got."

"I don't think it's polite to look through someone else's things," Tsukasa said as Konata flipped through the journal.

"Well I don't think this 'Miki' is going to care if we do. It mentions a 'Mai' too. Do you think this belongs to that friend Mai was talking about?"

"Maybe. I hope she's safe." Konata flipped passed a couple of pages.

"School life, tests, gossip, crushes. Ah, here's something," Konata said and pointed at a page and read it out loud.

* * *

><p><em>Mai passed out during our walk back home, so I helped her get to her house quickly. I didn't even notice the fog or lack of people until we were on the train.<em>

* * *

><p>"She didn't notice the fog? How is that-?"<p>

"It's a very gradual change. I didn't notice anything was really wrong until I was all alone too," Konata said and continued reading.

* * *

><p><em>The train stopped at a station. We didn't know how long it would take to get to Mai's house, so we just walked. Simple until the monsters came for us. I lost track of Mai in the confusion and I ran to this school.<em>

_Where is everyone?_

* * *

><p>"She was all alone? I can't imagine what that must feel like," Tsukasa said sadly.<p>

"Trust me, it sucks. Only you and the monsters out there, save for the parts where this place tries to break your mind." Konata then added under her breath, "I really hate that pink haired girl."

"Huh?"

"Nothing, let's see what else there is in here." Konata flipped through the journal some more. "She doesn't really write much: monster descriptions, general worry… oh no."

"What?"

"Listen to this: _It's been almost five days now. I've managed to get by stealing food from the cafeteria all this time but… what is that si-_" Konata closed the journal and sighed, "It stops there. I hate to say it, but she's probably been in the Dark World for a couple days now."

"What?" Tsukasa jumped as Mai seemingly appeared out of nowhere, "what do you mean?"

"We found this," Konata said and held out the journal, "Your friend is Miki right?"

"Yes it is!" Mai exclaimed and took the book, "Where is she?"

"She's in a place called 'The Dark World.' It's like here, but much worse."

"What? Why are you so calm about this! We have to save her!"

"You have _no_ idea what's in there, do you? I barely got out alive last time I was there!"

"She's my friend and you expect me to just leave her there?"

"This isn't helping!" Tsukasa yelled, "We aren't going to find your friend or a way out yelling at each other!" Konata and Mai stared at Tsukasa for a moment.

Konata sighed and said, "She's right. Chances are we'll probably cross over there anyway, so we'll keep an eye out for Miki while over there." Mai nodded and clutched the journal to her chest. "So, did you have any luck with your search?"

Mai shook her head and said, "No, most of the doors are locked or broken. There's probably some more places I haven't looked though."

"Do you need help with that?" Tsukasa asked. Mai shook her head and looked at the journal.

"No, I… want to read this alone. Is that ok?" Konata nodded and pulled out the key.

"Sure, we still need to find where this key goes anyway," she said and twirled the key a little.

"Did you try checking the key itself?" Mai asked. Konata blinked twice before doing so.

"Oh, it says 'Boiler Room'," She read and gave an awkward laugh. Mai and Tsukasa slumped a little and Mai looked like she was about to say something when-

*Thunk*

Mai screamed out as a large knife embedded itself into the journal. The three looked over to where the knife came from and Tsukasa froze in fear at the sight of the scarred monster from before.

"Targets acquired," it said quietly, "Commencing elimination protocols."

"First Haruhi and now Yuki? What is the deal there?" Konata asked.

"Forget that, run!" Konata and Tsukasa didn't need any more incentive to get going. Mai pulled the knife out of the journal and tossed it as best she could off the roof. Tsukasa reached the door first and held it open for the others, and slammed it shut once they were through.

"Where do we go?" Tsukasa asked.

"Anywhere but here!" Konata said grabbing Tsukasa's hand and dragging her down the stairs. Mai rounded a corner at the bottom of the stairs and by the time Konata and Tsukasa approached she was running the other way.

"Not this way NOT THIS WAY!" she yelled. Konata almost asked what was wrong, but stopped at the bloodbath around the corner.

"They _are_ fighting each other," Konata whispered. There was at least a dozen of those 'friend monsters' fighting, biting and clawing each other's throats out.

"W-why do some of them look like me?" Tsukasa asked terrified. Konata realized she was right, most of the ones that were winning looked like Tsukasa. Not only that, at least half of the ones losing looked like Kagami with the rest being a mixture of her other friends. One of the Tsukasa's looked at Konata and let out an ear piercing scream.

"RUN!" Konata shouted and pulled Tsukasa along and down the stairs. One flight of stairs and the first monster tumbled down after them. Tsukasa nearly tripped on the last step, although Konata helped her keep her footing.

"Where are we going to go?" Tsukasa asked. The screams seemed to be growing closer.

"I need a second to think," Konata said back. Out of the corner of her eye she saw one of the classroom doors was slightly opened. "In there!" she said as she opened the door and more or less threw Tsukasa into the room. Once Konata herself was inside she locked the door and knelt down, bringing Tsukasa with her. "Keep quiet for a second."

Footsteps, screams, and growls sounded outside of the classroom, though thankfully none of the monsters stopped at the door. Konata made a 'keep down' motion at Tsukasa and dared to stand up and look outside. The hallway was more or less clear, at least as far as Konata could tell, and a Kagami monster walked into view. It stopped in front of the door and looked around a little before fixing its black eyes on the door. It took a step to the door and was tackled to the ground by one of the Tsukasas.

It gave off a small scream before its throat was torn out violently. Konata got back down in case the other one decided to look in here, which it thankfully didn't. Once it walked away, silence claimed the air for a few minutes until Konata released the breath she had been holding.

"That was too close. I got too relaxed," Konata whispered and started rubbing her face, "Gotta stay on my toes, gotta stay on my toes, gotta stay on my toes."

"A-are you going to be alright Konata?" Tsukasa asked and sat next to her friend. Konata dropped her hands and nodded.

"Yeah, I'll be alright. Just…give me a minute." Konata took a couple deep breaths and looked around the room. "Where are we?"

"I don't know, I'm all turned around. Should we look around?"

"It couldn't hurt, but let's take a second to rest up."

"Yeah, I'm really tired," Tsukasa said and started rubbing her tired legs. Konata took the moment to rub her shoulder, which caused Tsukasa to have a moment of clarity. "Did you get bitten by one of those things?"

"Yeah, and it still stings a little," Konata answered. "At least it feels better than a few days ago." Konata stood up and stretched her arms and helped Tsukasa up, "Come on, let's look around."

"Ok," Tsukasa said. She started looking at the student's desks while Konata searched the teacher's. "I hope Mai is alright."

"As long as she found a place to hide she will be. I don't think any of the monsters followed her anyway," Konata said.

* * *

><p>Mai didn't know where to go, so she ran through the seemingly endless halls until she had ended up in the cafeteria. After blocking off the doors with a few tables and waiting a minute to see if anything would try and get in, Mai sat down and turned her attention to the journal she had been holding onto.<p>

'_Oh Miki, where could you be?'_ she thought and opened the book. She read every single page thoroughly, losing herself in old happy memories, as she flipped through the pages. There were a couple of things that she didn't want to know about her friend so she skipped ahead when it got too personal.

After a few minutes of silent reading, Mai had reached the entry of when they got into this crazy place. One sentence in particular caught her eye.

* * *

><p><em>I just got a call on my cell phone, despite the fact that I don't have a signal. Whoever was calling asked if I was a 'Konata Izumi' and hung up when I said no. I'm not going to tell Mai about this because whoever this Konata is, I don't think she's going to help us.<em>

* * *

><p>"Konata Izumi?" Mai whispered. The last few entries made Mai's gut sink up the last, unfinished word. She flipped back to the one entry and stared at the name. "Is this the same Konata I met?"<p>

"_She's in a place called the 'Dark World.' It's like here, but much worse."_

"_I barely got out alive the last time I went there."_

"She knew about this all along? Why didn't she bring it up? Unless…" Mai's hand curled up into a fist and a small flame of anger burned at her mind, "Unless she _caused_ all of this! She knows a lot about this place and she said she knew people that those monsters are based on." Her nails dug into her palm and she bored holes into the journal. "Miki could be hurt or dead because of her, i_f_ it is her." Mai closed the journal and rested her head in her hands.

"She has a lot of questions to answer," she said.

* * *

><p>"I found something!" Tsukasa said to Konata who rushed over to her side.<p>

"Great, what is it?" Konata asked. Tsukasa placed a piece of paper and what seemed to be half of a porcelain mask on a desk.

"These were in this desk here," Tsukasa explained and pointed at a desk. Konata picked up the mask and looked at it all over.

"It looks like it broke off of something," Konata said and handed it to Tsukasa, "I pretty sure it's important so hold onto this please."

"Why do you think it's important?" Tsukasa asked taking the mask.

"If we're still going by the rules, it has to be. Otherwise we wouldn't have found it." Konata tapped the side of her forehead with a finger, although Tsukasa stared blankly at her. "Now what about you?" Konata asked picking up the paper. It was folded halfway and had some neatly typed words on it.

* * *

><p><em>A mask can hide most anything: one's face, one's fears, one's inner darkness.<em>

_A fractured mask is worthless._

_Once repaired, it can continue to hide things._

_But nothing stays hidden forever._

_-K_

* * *

><p>"One's inner darkness? That's a little foreboding," Konata said.<p>

"So um, what are we supposed to do?" Tsukasa asked.

"Most likely find where that mask goes," Konata answered folding the paper up. "And the one place we haven't tried is the basement."

"I… don't really want to go there."

"Don't worry Tsukasa, I'll have your back every step of the way! All we have to do is avoid the monsters roaming the halls and go into a dark place that could have anything." Tsukasa started shaking, her eyes wide with fear, once Konata was finished. "That sounded a lot more encouraging in my head."

"I-I'll be f-fine," Tsukasa said and moved stiffly to the door, "L-let's just go before I lose my n-nerve."

"Ok, but maybe it would be best if I went first?" Tsukasa turned around and walked behind Konata, who walked to the door and peeked outside. "Oh man, that's not pretty. Don't look down Tsukasa."

Tsukasa nodded and followed Konata out into the hall. She saw a slowly spreading pool of darkening blood, which unfortunately caused her imagination to fill in the blanks and made her sick to her stomach.

"Do you know which way the basement is?" Konata asked which made Tsukasa jump a little.

"I… think it's near the gym," Tsukasa replied, "But I'm not too sure myself."

"Better than nothing I guess," Konata said with a shrug, "Now that I think of it, do you have your cell phone with you?"

"Uh, yes I do," Tsukasa said and showed her cell phone to Konata, "I found it at the pool."

"Pool?"

"I fell into the pool when I got here."

"Huh, well weirder things have happened. So why isn't this stupid thing going off?" Konata asked and pulled out her cell phone.

"Going off?" Tsukasa asked.

"Oh, it's on silent. You see, when a monster is nearby our phones should give off static."

"I haven't noticed any static," Tsukasa said and checked her phone.

"Well we've been getting jumped constantly, so I guess we just haven't noticed." The two girls put their phones away and continued walking through the halls.

"Do you think Sis and Miyuki are worried about us?" Tsukasa asked.

"Undoubtedly," Konata answered flatly. Tsukasa blinked and was about to ask something when Konata spoke up. "Hey, were you and Kagami worried when I disappeared the first time?"

"Of course we were! I could hardly sleep when you were gone and you can't imagine how relieved I was when Kagami told me you were at our house." Konata didn't respond at first. Suddenly Konata turned around and hugged Tsukasa tightly. "Konata, are you-?"

"Thanks," Konata whispered, "you have no idea how glad it makes me to hear that." She hugged Tsukasa for a little longer before letting go. "We better get going. Who knows when we'll be found again."

"Ok, I think we're close now." Tsukasa was a little concerned about Konata's sudden mood shift. _'Maybe everything's getting to her?'_ she thought. She heard a faint sound from behind them and turned around to see only empty halls.

"That doesn't sound good, we should go." Tsukasa nodded in agreement and the picked up the pace. After what felt like an eternity of walking they reached what they hoped was the door to the basement. The door didn't open immediately and it took some effort from both girls for it to creak open. "What the hell, it's like no one's oiled this thing for years."

"It's really dark down there," Tsukasa said, her voice shaking slightly. Konata turned on her flashlight and shined it down into the darkness.

"It looks alright and I don't hear any static. Let's go," Konata said and descended the steps. Tsukasa gulped and followed, turning on her flashlight as well.

The basement was fairly simple in design, essentially being a hallway with several doors leading into various rooms. Tsukasa could make out the doors for the janitor's closet and storage to her right. Tsukasa looked back at Konata, who was waving her over.

"I found the boiler room," Konata said and took out her key. "Let's do this quickly, this darkness is giving me the creeps." Konata inserted the key and unlocked the door. She was about to open it when they heard the door at the top of the stairs open.

"Are you two down there?"

"Mai?" Tsukasa asked and walked to the stairs. Surely enough, Mai was at the top and slowly descending down to them. "You're safe! I was so worried about you."

"I'm… glad to hear that," Mai said flatly, holding Miki's journal close to her chest.

"Hey will you two hurry and get in here!" Konata yelled. Tsukasa looked to see Konata went into the room ahead of them. Tsukasa jumped and rushed to the door and Mai followed slowly. "I have to warn you, it's a little… bad in here."

"What do you meaAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Tsukasa's scream resonated through the room, of course could you blame her given the contents of the room? It looked like a standard boiler room up until the back wall which degraded into a mess of barbed wire leading up to a grotesque form strapped into the center of the wall.

"What the hell is that thing?" Mai asked once she saw it. Konata inspected it for a second and turned back to the others with a grin.

"This is our way out," she said confidently.

"I-it is?" Tsukasa asked quietly and took tiny steps into the room.

"What are you talking about?" Mai asked. Konata blinked a little at Mai's apparent annoyance but shrugged it off.

"Look at the face here," Konata said pointing at the things face. Tsukasa was reluctant to do so, but slowly did so. Although the barbed wire crossed across its body, small trails of blood dripping down from some of the wounds, it avoided its face completely. The face was almost feature less save for some a couple of eyes and half of a mask on its face.

"Remember what that paper said?" Konata asked and pulled out a piece of paper. "_Masks hide a lot of things, broken masks are worthless, nothing stays hidden forever._ You still have that mask, right Tsukasa? Just set that on its face and the way out should open."

"There is no way it can be that simple," Mai commented.

"There's only one way to find out! Tsukasa, let me see that mask."

"O-ok," Tsukasa said and quickly gave the mask to Konata, not wanting to be any closer to the visage than necessary. Konata looked the mask over a little before walking up to the figure on the wall. At this distance Konata could see that both of the eyes were different colors, the exposed side having a kind of deep gray and the other having a vivid green.

She reached to place the mask on the face when the figure screamed loudly, startling Konata into falling backwards.

"AAAH, it's alive!" Tsukasa yelled and backed away further.

"Ain't that the damndest thing," Mai said.

"I'm fine by the way, thanks for asking," Konata said and stood up. The figure writhed against the wire's securing it's body to the wall as Konata walked up to it. It's gray eye jerked around the room as she put the mask on it.

It stopped moving, its gray eye changing to green with the mask in place, and Konata heard a faint click from the wall.

"I told you Mai," Konata said and she started checking the wall. Tsukasa gathered up her courage and joined her friend at the wall. Konata eventually found a crack in the wall and dug a finger into it. The wall creaked and opened up a little. "Found you. Help me out with this." With Tsukasa's help, the wall slowly opened to show a hallway on the other side.

"That doesn't look like a way out," Mai said.

"Well we still have to go through it," Konata said as Tsukasa took the first steps into the new hall, "What's wrong with you? You've been acting weird since you got back."

"I don't know what you're talking about, _Konata._" The way Mai said her name sent shivers down Konata's spine. Before she could say anything, the wall swiftly closed shut with Tsukasa behind it.

"Oh crap!" Konata dashed to the wall and pounded on it, "Tsukasa, are you there?"

"I'm here. Why did the door close?" Tsukasa asked from the other side.

"I don't know," Konata answered and tried to get a grip on the crack from before. "I can't get the door open. Try pushing from your side." Konata didn't hear an answer from the other side, so she assumed Tsukasa was doing what she had been asked. "Hey Mai, can you help me with this?"

"I have a better idea." A faint click could be heard behind Konata, so she turned to find Mai standing next to the door. "Since we may be here a while, why don't I ask you some questions."

"Come on, there's no time for jokes. We have to open this wall aga-"

"Your name's Izumi right?" Mai asked. With Konata visibly thrown off by the question, she pressed with, "Konata Izumi is your full name?"

"What if it is? That doesn't have anything to do with this."

"Miki got a call."

'_Oh no.'_

"The person who called asked for a 'Konata Izumi'."

'_Please tell me this isn't heading where I think it is!'_

"When they found out that we weren't her- weren't you- they left us to die. How would that make you feel in my shoes?"

"I don't know, I'm as new to this as you are."

"DON'T BULLSHIT ME!" Mai yelled and reached into her pocket, "That voice asked for you, so obviously you have something to do with all of this. For all I know, we could be here because of YOU!" Mai pulled out a knife and pointed it at Konata.

'_Oh no,'_ Konata thought, her eyes wide with fear and her blood running cold. "M-Mai, calm down a little."

"Not until I get Miki back! Give her back to me!"

'_I have to be careful here, one wrong move or word and she'll probably try to kill me. Stay calm girl and whatever you do, _don't pull a James Sunderland right now_.'_

"I just want her back, is that so wrong?" Tears were falling down Mai's face as she said those words.

"Of course not, but think about it. How do you plan to get where she is?"

"That's for you to figure out! You put her there, so just bring her back!"

"Konata, what's going on?" Tsukasa shouted.

"It doesn't work like that! There are rules that you, me, everyone here has to follow, and getting to the Dark World is one of them. You can't just go there."

"Shut it!" Mai screamed and threw the journal to the ground, "You're just saying that to protect your own sorry ass! Just give her back to me you… you witch!" She held the knife with shaking hands, "I'll kill you if you don't, I swear it."

"If you kill me, your friend's as good as dead. I don't even know if you _can_ go to the Dark World." Mai looked at the ground for a moment before looking up at Konata with angry eyes.

"We'll see," she said and charged at her. Konata gave a yelp and dove out of the way, the knife barely missing her as it plunged into the wall figure.

"Tsukasa, get the door open!" Konata shouted and rose to her feet.

"How? I don't know how this works!" Tsukasa shouted just as Mai pulled the knife free.

"I don't care, just do it! Right now!" Mai rose to stab downward just as Konata shut off her flashlight and rolled to the side. The knife struck against the wall with a *clink* and Mai gave a frustrated scream.

"Where are you?" Mai screamed as she searched the darkness, "Just give Miki back and I won't have to do this!"

Konata didn't answer, she tried to make her footsteps as quiet as possible, she didn't even try to breathe for fear of Mai finding her.

'_What am I going to do?'_ Konata thought as she sidled up against a wall, _'This room is too small for this, she'll find me eventually. Oh Tsukasa open the door quickly.'_

"What makes you so special? Why you and not me or Miki? Why are we so worthless compared to you?" Mai stabbed at a random bit of wall as she screamed this, "It's just not fair!"

'_I know it's not, but please act reasonably! Killing me isn't going to save your friend!'_

'_**And what if it does?'**_

'_Huh?'_

'_**What if she's right? What if your death will save not only her friend, but everyone else in this world? One death to save several others, a fitting enough fate wouldn't you say?'**_

'_Shut up, you don't know that.'_

'_**There's only one way to find out.'**_

"Shut up!"

"Found you!" Konata only just realized she had shouted when she was tackled to the ground. She looked up into Mai's near crazy eyes and felt the knife just inches away from her throat. "Now, just give me Miki and I won't slice that throat of yours open." Konata tried to move but Mai had her pinned good.

"But…I…" Konata chose her words carefully, but both her and Mai got distracted.

Static. And it was getting louder.

"Dammit, we're running out of time! Just… please make all this go away. Get rid of the monsters, bring Miki back, set everything to normal. You can do it, so why don't you?"

"Because I _can't!_ Think for a second Mai; if I did cause all of this, if I went through the trouble of putting the monsters and puzzles in place, why would I put Tsukasa in that danger? Why would I put _myself_ in that danger? Everything wants me as dead as they want you dead, if not more so. So what-," Konata pushed Mai off of her and got to her knees, "-would make me do all that for something so pointless?" Mai stared at Konata, barely able to make out her form, before looking at her hands.

"You… really aren't behind this, are you?" Mai asked. The knife slipped out of her hands and she grasped the sides of her head. "But then why did… oh Miki." The static coming from Konata's phone was near deafening now and something crashed against the door.

"Mai we have to get out of here!" Konata shouted and extended a hand to Mai, who knocked it away and crawled to the discarded journal. Konata turned her flashlight on, which helped Mai find the book.

"Oh Miki, I wish I could see you one last time," she said to the book and hugged it close, "I'm so sorry."

"Mai…" The pounding at the door grew more intense and the wood started to splinter.

"Just…go."

The door finally gave in, bursting open in a shower of splinters. Her phone gave off a horrible screech as Konata turned to the monster.

It was humanoid and if Konata didn't know any better she would have thought it was just a muscular man in a hooded sweatshirt. The sweatshirt was red with splotches of a darker red covering it, as well as dark jeans with red on it as well. She couldn't see its face, save for glowing red eyes, and watched as it shifted the cleaver in its hand.

It turned its eyes to Konata, and then to Mai, then it started toward Mai.

"Mai!" Konata yelled, but got no response. "Tsukasa, get the door open!"

"I can't! It won't budge!"

Konata backed to the wall with the door as the monster reached Mai.

'_Run, please run,'_ Konata begged. Mai didn't move. She didn't even bother to look up. _'Oh no, please run.'_

Her please went unheeded as the monster raised its cleaver and brought it down onto Mai's skull. It made a sickening crack as Mai's arms went limp and the journal fell to the ground. Blood poured out of the open wound and down her face onto her black uniform.

"Oh god no," Konata whispered as the monster tried to pull the cleaver free. After the first few times it placed it's free hand on Mai's shoulder and pulled hard, freeing it this time. Mai's body crumpled to the ground, dead eyes staring at Konata.

Then the monster looked at Konata.

"The door's moving!" Tsukasa yelled and pushed as hard as she could against the wall, which opened enough for her to see a shell shocked Konata. "Konata!" Tsukasa grabbed her friend's hand and pulled her into the door just as a cleaver embedded itself into the wall. That, plus the horrible roar from the room, was enough to get Tsukasa running with Konata trailing behind.

"Mai's dead," Konata said as they ran, "Oh god why? That's the second time someone's died in front of me."

"Mai is-" Tsukasa stopped at the sight of red eyes behind them, "What is that?" That snapped Konata out of her daze.

"We gotta go, now!" Konata yelled and pulled her hand back, "Just run Tsukasa!"

And ran they did. The corridor seemed to go on forever, twisting and turning with only the light of two flashlights to show the way. When they dared to glance back they saw the monster was getting closer. Tsukasa, who wasn't much of a runner, started to feel the aches in her legs and the burning in her lungs. Stopping now would be a death sentence though, so she pushed through the pain. Soon the girls saw the welcoming light of, surprisingly, an elevator.

"Konata, look!" Tsukasa pushed ahead into the elevator, only for terror to grip her as the doors started closing. Konata didn't make it inside.

"Dammit! I'll try and find another way around, just get somewhere safe. Ok Tsukasa?"

"But-" Tsukasa started, but just then the elevator came to life and lifted her up. She tried to stop it, but none of the controls would respond. Tsukasa wrung her hands together in worry until the elevator came to a sudden stop. The floor indicator said she was on the first floor, although the doors didn't open. Tsukasa walked up to the doors and heard footsteps on the other side.

"Hello?" she called out and was rewarded when the footsteps stopped. "Is anyone out there? I'm trapped in the elevator." The footsteps drew closer to the door and stopped just in front of it.

"Hello?" a voice called from the other side.

"Hello? I-I'm trapped in here, can you open the doors?" There was silence on the other side until something resembling a sigh came out.

"The door's busted, I can't open it from here," the voice said. Tsukasa would have answered to that, but she heard a faint sound in the distance.

A sound that made her head hurt.

"Oh no," the voice said, "Listen to me, wherever you end up try and get to Class 2-E. I'll be waiting there. Just don't go and die on me, you here?"

Tsukasa barely registered the voice as she collapsed to her knees. The elevator rumbled to life as the siren dug into her head and clawed at her mind until she fell to the ground and passed out.

The last thing she saw was the elevator opening into darkness.


	12. Dark School

Tsukasa slowly regained consciousness and felt cold metal against her face. She groaned lightly and pushed herself up to her knees. She rubbed her eyes and focused on her surroundings. The elevator she was in was dirtier than before and outside the darkness was near impenetrable. Tsukasa stood up and almost fell down from her unsteady legs.

"Where am I?" Tsukasa asked. The darkness outside didn't offer any answer, so Tsukasa slowly stepped out of the elevator. The light of the flashlight showed wet, dying grass leading to orange concrete. "The… track field? How did I get here?" Tsukasa yelped a little when a raindrop hit her face. She looked up at the sky and found only a black sky, with no stars or moon showing. As more raindrops fell around her, Tsukasa took a deep breath.

"Ok, Class 2-E," she whispered and started walking. Since she didn't know exactly where she was on the track, Tsukasa started walking around it to find the school. After what seemed to be half a lap she saw the school next to her and gasped at the state it was in.

From the quick glance Tsukasa saw, the school was a mess. The walls were decaying, some parts already showing the metal underneath the concrete, and there seemed to be scorch marks on parts of the wall. Windows were broken and one of the doors Tsukasa could see looked ready to fall off its hinges.

The school looked like it could be condemned at any moment. Tsukasa gave a little whimper in fear as she walked to the building.

'_Class 2-E, avoid any monsters,'_ Tsukasa thought and put a hand on a door, _'I hope Konata is alright.'_ She pulled the door open, it giving off a loud creak of reluctance, and walked into the school closing the door behind her.

The inside of the school wasn't faring any better than the outside, as most of the hallway looked incredibly water logged. The floors looked decayed the wood looked like it could give way at any moment. Tsukasa could hear the faint sound of machinery in the distance, which unsettled her immensely. Still she pushed through the hallway and hoped that she wouldn't find anything in the halls.

That hope was almost immediately crushed when she heard some shuffling behind her and felt like she was being watched. Tsukasa picked up her pace and soon approached a stairwell.

Only to find it blocked off by a chain link fence.

"Why is this here?" Tsukasa asked and shook the fence, "This would have taken me right to where I need to go." It wouldn't have mattered anyway since a monster stirred on the other side, though Tsukasa didn't take a moment to see who it looked like. "I guess I'll just go around the other side," Tsukasa said hurriedly and walked away from the fence as fast as possible. She slowed down once she rounded the corner and couldn't see the fence anymore. She breathed a sigh of relief continued down the hallway. Once she reached the shoe lockers she stopped when she saw one of them was slightly open and had something in it.

'_What's this?'_ she thought as she walked over to the locker. As it turned out, the contents were some kind of torn up note. More out of curiosity than anything, Tsukasa tried to piece it together to see what it was. Unfortunately all she could piece together was that it was some kind of love confession note. _'Did someone put this here? And why is it torn up?'_ Tsukasa stood up and looked around, coming face to face with a bloodied face not even an inch away from her. She shrieked and fell on her back, although once she looked back she didn't find anything.

"I better get going," Tsukasa said and once again started walking through the halls. She took note of how the school had changed, some classrooms just didn't exist anymore and on some walls were some writing such as 'Go home freak' and 'You don't belong here.' Tsukasa shivered at a particularly vulgar message as she approached the next stairwell, which thankfully wasn't blocked off.

There were still obstacles though.

Tsukasa stopped at the foot of the stairs as her flashlight caught the silhouette of two monsters, one of the ones that looked like her kneeling over one that looked like Miyuki. The latter had a bite taken from its throat and was clearly dead. The monster looked up at Tsukasa and the both of them let out a scream as it charged at Tsukasa. Tsukasa froze up and the monster tackled her to the ground, a horrible chill immediately passing through her body as static from her phone screeched. She managed to stop the monster from reaching her throat and the sight of razor sharp teeth biting near her and its black eyes scared Tsukasa to her core.

Using all her strength, Tsukasa threw the monster off to her left and got up as fast as she could. The monster almost grabbed Tsukasa's ankle as she ran up the stairs and was already up and giving chase as she reached the second floor.

'_Oh no oh no, how do I get rid of it?'_ Tsukasa thought. Up ahead she saw a bathroom sign appear in her light. _'Oh please have stalls!'_ Tsukasa ran into the girls bathroom, which did have stalls if not incredibly rusted ones, and ran into one of them turning off her light along the way. Tsukasa didn't want to take any chances so she stood on the toilet and covered her mouth with a hand. She heard shuffling on the other side of the door and heavy breathing that moved around the bathroom.

In this short moment, Tsukasa couldn't stop the thoughts running through her head. _'It sounds really close, what if it finds me? What will it do if it does?'_ Once she started thinking that, her breathing increased and her mind started to imagine.

* * *

><p><em>She must have slipped up somehow, although she couldn't think of what it was since the door burst open almost immediately. She couldn't even scream when the monster slammed her into the wall, stars filling her vision when her head hit the wall. Then a sharp pain as the monster bit into her neck.<em>

_Through some stroke of cruel luck, Tsukasa could see into the mirror as her twisted doppelganger bit into her neck. Warm liquid seeped down from the bite and into her clothes. It bit down harder, increasing the pain she felt. Tsukasa's eyes narrowed and she tried to breathe, to scream, to say _something_, but nothing came. She tried to fight it off, but it only bit down harder, overwhelming her brain with pain._

_Except it had started to dull._

_Finally the monster tore away from her, freeing Tsukasa to fall to the ground breathing heavily. She reached a hand to where she was bitten only to meet soft flesh and sticky blood. A chunk of her neck was torn out. She was bleeding heavily, the left side of her uniform slowly turning red._

_Tsukasa Hiiragi collapsed to the ground with only a small gasp to signal the end of her life._

* * *

><p>Tsukasa suppressed a cry and for a second thought that her fantasy would become reality once the shuffling stopped. But in the distance she heard a scream.<p>

The monster outside the stall stopped for a moment before it also screamed and ran out of the bathroom. Once the scream had died down and everything was dead quiet Tsukasa stepped off the toilet and peeked outside.

'_It's gone,'_ she thought once she saw the room was empty, _'Maybe I should keep my flashlight off, just in case.'_ Tsukasa stepped slowly out of the bathroom and, not seeing any immediate danger, started walking along the wall. As she did this she only ran across one other monster, orange hair showing slightly in the darkness, which didn't see her as she pressed against the wall and moved as quietly as possible. Once that danger had passed, she continued until she could make out the sign for 2-E. She resisted a sigh of relief as she quietly slid the door open and walked inside.

The inside of the classroom was dark and more importantly contained nothing giving off static. Tsukasa risked turning on the flashlight and nearly jumped at a hunched figure. It only barely moved when the light came on and Tsukasa recognized that it was a girl. She stirred and sat up in the desk, although her long black hair prevented Tsukasa from seeing her face.

"Oh great, it's still dark. I guess I won't be sleeping this away," the girl said.

"H-hello?" Tsukasa asked just as the girl started stretching. She apparently just noticed Tsukasa was in the room and turned around in her seat, which caused Tsukasa to freeze from shock.

The girl was dressed in a school uniform, a gym sweater replacing the sailor top, and she held herself with a kind of angry demeanor.

Of course, it was her face that got to Tsukasa the most.

"K-Konata? Is that you?" Tsukasa asked.

"You know my name?" the girl asked tilting her head. She stood up and walked over to Tsukasa, who backed away a little. They both got a good look at each other and Tsukasa found that, aside from the hair and eye color and a pair of glasses, the girl looked exactly like Konata.

"What happened to you Konata?" Tsukasa asked.

"What are you talking about?" Konata squinted and adjusted her glasses slightly. "Wait, you're Hiiragi right? Kagami's younger sister?"

"Um, y-yes?"

"Oh that's just my luck. I take it you were the one in the elevator a while ago?" Tsukasa nodded and Konata sighed and sat on a desk. "I guess I shouldn't harp on you so much. You are still alive after all. Of course, that just leaves the question as to what to do now."

"Um, when did you change your hair color?" Tsukasa asked, "Or get glasses and change your clothes?"

"Seriously?" Konata's tone and stare dug into Tsukasa, "I knew you were a little airheaded but I didn't take you for flat out stupid."

"W-what?" Tsukasa said and felt on the verge of tears. Konata sighed and hopped off the desk.

"Maybe that was a little harsh. Let's try this, how exactly am I different?"

"Well, just what I said. Your hair is supposed to be blue and you don't wear glasses," Tsukasa answered and quietly added, "You're also nicer." Konata stared at Tsukasa quietly for a few moments.

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard," she finally said, "What kind of person has blue hair? I don't know who you're confusing me for, but they're not here. Now can you quit fooling around and help me figure a way out of here?"

"I'm being serious!" Konata was taken aback from the outburst and Tsukasa looked a little regretful at it. "What is going on?"

"I wish I knew. You want my best estimation?" Tsukasa looked up at Konata as she stuck her hands into her jacket's pockets.

"What?"

"We're in hell." Konata didn't notice Tsukasa freezing up from fear as she walked over to the window. "Can you help me for a second? I need your flashlight." Tsukasa didn't answer and once Konata looked over to her and saw her almost completely paralyzed she rolled her eyes and walked over to snatch her flashlight away. When she did that, Tsukasa snapped out of her daze and stuck close to Konata as she walked back to the window.

"Dammit, I can't see a thing," Konata whispered as she stared out into the darkness, the flashlight not providing any help at all. "Can you see anything?"

"Nuh uh," Tsukasa answered and pressed up against the glass and just noticed the metal bars outside the window, "This is the school right?"

"Last I checked. How did you get here anyway?"

"I… fell through a hole in the bathroom down the hall and landed in the pool. What about you?"

"Fell asleep in class, woke up here. Last time it happened I was at the train station." Konata leaned back from the window and gave Tsukasa her flashlight back, "But how do we get out? I can't remember how I did it last time."

"Um…" Tsukasa tried to think as hard as she could and something struck her. "I passed by the front doors on my way here and I don't think there was anything there."

"Hm, it seems too easy and we might get jumped by something there, but honestly I can't think of anything else. Let's start there and work our way from there, ok?"

"O-ok. So… should we go?" Tsukasa asked and started walking to the door.

"Hold one a second," Konata said and grabbed something from the desk she was sleeping at, which Tsukasa soon saw was a long iron pipe. She slung it across her shoulder and joined Tsukasa at the door.

"Um, what is-?"

"You can never be too careful, and I'd much rather have something to protect myself with than just my wits." Tsukasa couldn't argue with that and she turned to the door and placed a hand on the door. "Hey, turn off your light. Those things don't see too well in the dark."

"Really? Thanks," Tsukasa said and turned off her flashlight, nearly jumping when Konata put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll be right behind you, so don't worry about that," Konata whispered to her. Tsukasa took a deep breath and slowly opened the door and walked into the hallway. Tsukasa only now realized how dark it was and that she could barely see anything in front of her. Tsukasa reached for her phone to check it as they slowly made their way through the hallway.

"No signal. At least the sound is working," Tsukasa whispered.

"So phones work the same way as radios?" Konata asked, "That'd be good to know if I even had a cell phone." Tsukasa put away her phone and looked back at where she thought Konata was.

"You don't have one? Why?"

"No point since the only person who talks to me on a regular basis is Kagami. Everyone else can rot for all I care."

"W-what?"

"Nothing, that's my own baggage. Did you hear that?" The two girls stopped and listened through the darkness. Several seconds passed without anything happening.

"I don't hear-"

"AAAAAH!"

The scream tore through the silence of the hallway and made both girls jump.

"What was that?" Tsukasa asked and moved behind Konata. Konata gave her an annoyed look and slowly moved forward holding the pipe in front of her. The stairs were just showing through the darkness and the silence following the scream was overwhelming. "I don't like this place, I want to go home."

"Then stay quiet! Those things can still hear us." Tsukasa clamped her mouth shut and dared not say anything else. Konata was glad for that, she had always found her to be kind of annoying. She slowly walked down the stairs, keeping an eye and ear open for monsters. They flinched a little at the creaking stairs and looked around once they reached the bottom. "Where are they? There's just nothing around at all."

"That's good right?" Tsukasa asked, "Those things are scary and… why do some of them look like me? I don't get it."

"That's true, and then there's…" Konata stopped and looked at Tsukasa, "When exactly did you get here?"

"Um… it was lunchtime when I fell, so… hold on," Tsukasa reached into her pocket, took out her phone, and checked the screen. "W-what?! It says 10 o'clock at night! That can't be right, can it?"

"It's probably just this place messing with us," Konata reassured Tsukasa and took the phone from her to check it, "Let's just say for convenience sake that it's only been about an hour or so since you got here."

"I guess that sounds right," Tsukasa said and took the phone back, "but what does this have to do with the monsters?"

"Well- what was that? Stay quiet." Konata gripped the pipe in both of her hands and slowly moved along the wall to the corner, static screeching through the air the closer she got to the corner. Konata heard a slight growling from around the corner and saw a faint form of Tsukasa walk from around the corner.

Konata quickly knocked it over with a strike of her pipe. The monster let out a surprised shriek as it fell and almost got up as Konata stepped on its neck and brought the pipe down on its head two more times until it stopped moving. Tsukasa joined her gasped at the sight as Konata took a couple breaths and looked back at Tsukasa.

"Right, like I was saying, these things started acting up about an hour ago. At least I think it was that long ago since I was sleeping, but you get my point right?" It took Tsukasa a moment of thinking before she did.

"A-are you saying they're attacking each other because of me?" Tsukasa asked shivering a little.

"Why not? I've only seen the ones that look like you attack the others. You must have some serious issues if you're able to affect these things."

"But I don't have anything like that!" Tsukasa turned the flashlight on and approached Konata, "Why would I cause something like that?"

"Nobody is completely aware of their own problems Hiiragi. Come on, we have to get out of here." Konata turned away from Tsukasa and walked to the front doors of the school, stopping briefly to inspect the shoeboxes before moving on with Tsukasa. She put hand on the door and gave it a test push, resulting in the door creaking open a little. She pushed on it harder and opened the door fully to show the next room.

The doors led into a decently sized room, about the size of one of the classrooms. It was mostly empty, cold gray concrete reflecting the flashlight and cold water splashing underfoot. The air seemed to be slightly colder too, but the girls figured it was just their imagination. The pair took a couple more steps into the room and Tsukasa stopped when she saw something on the wall in front of them.

"Oh my god," was all she could get out at the sight. On the wall was a girl, about 16 years old, strung up by her hands with a rope. Her black school uniform stood in contrast to her pale skin, and the bottom of her uniform was stained in blood. The stains led up to her stomach, where a pitchfork was embedded into her. Tsukasa started to gag at the sight and clenched her stomach.

"If you're gonna throw up, do it in the corner please," Konata said with a hand wave. Tsukasa took her advice and ran to a corner and threw up. This had been coming on for a while and Tsukasa was slightly glad that she could get it out. After her latest heave showed she wouldn't give anything more, she looked back at Konata and tried not to look at the girl on the wall.

Konata set her pipe against the wall and started walking toward the girl. When she got close enough she took something out of her jacket pocket and fiddled with it for a moment.

"What's that?" Tsukasa asked weakly.

"A lighter," Konata answered plainly.

"Why do you have a-"

"Why do you _think_ I have a lighter?" After a couple flicks Konata flicked open and lit the lighter and brought it closer to the girl's face. "Jeez, she's been through a lot." Konata leaned in closer to the girl to inspect her face with Tsukasa growing worried. Konata was now right up in the girls face when- "AAAAAAAH!" she jumped back screaming in fear, which caused Tsukasa to do the same. After a minute of screaming, Tsukasa finally quieted down enough to see that Konata was laughing and the girl hadn't moved at all.

"Konata, that's not funny!" Tsukasa shouted letting her fright and anger show through.

"I'm sorry, you're just too easy to scare," Konata answered in between laughs, "Just like at the beach!" Tsukasa stared at her with her face reddening until Konata finally stopped laughing and put her lighter away. "Anyway, you don't have to worry about her. It looks like she's been dead for a while. Strange though, I wonder where she-"

Just then the girl on the wall jerked violently and let out a horrible pained scream. Konata shrieked at the sudden noise and fell back while Tsukasa screamed and backed against the wall. The girl's scream gave way to a hacking cough, thick bits of blood landing in the water. After a few more coughs and some more blood, the room went quiet save for the impaled girl's pained cries.

"She's still alive!" Tsukasa yelled and ran to the girl and grabbed the handle of the pitchfork.

"Wait, no!" Konata yelled too late to stop Tsukasa from pulling on the pitchfork. The girl screamed again which surprised Tsukasa into backing away just as Konata got up and grabbed her shoulders. "Idiot, don't touch anything! You could kill her if you do something wrong!"

"I'm sorry! I was just trying to help!" Tsukasa said.

"Well stop trying!"

"Where… am I?" a weak voice said next to them. Konata and Tsukasa looked at the girl who was slowly looking around until she the pair of girls. She moved just the slightest and yelped in pain again.

"Whoa careful, that looks pretty bad," Konata said rushing to the girl with Tsukasa slowly following.

"Are you ok?" Tsukasa asked.

"She has a pitchfork stabbed through her gut; I'm fairly certain she's not doing too hot."

"I'm just trying to help!"

"Which you're really bad at, as noted."

"What's going on?" the girl asked, "who are you?"

"Oh, sorry about that. I'm Konata and this is Hiiragi, and you are?"

"M- my friends call me Miki," she answered and coughed up a little blood, "please tell me you know what's going on."

"Miki?" Tsukasa asked quietly.

"Sorry, we're as lost as you are. We _may_ be in my high school, but don't count on it. What about you, what's the last thing you remember?" Miki started breathing heavily as she thought it over.

"I… think I was with a friend of mine. We were running from something and… I think I heard a siren and passed out."

"And your friend, what happened to her?"

"I… don't know. I hope she's… alright."

"Your friend's name is Mai right?" Tsukasa asked quietly.

"You saw her?! How is she?" Miki asked with a brief flicker of happiness on her face, only for it to drop at Tsukasa's face.

"I'm sorry, but…" Tsukasa couldn't finish the sentence and wiped a tear from her eye.

"S-she's… oh my god." Tears started forming in Miki's eyes and she shook with sobs, pain shooting through her body as she did so.

"If it means anything, she died quickly," Konata said and turned away from Miki, "We should all be so lucky."

"That doesn't help, she was my friend and she's dead! I should have been there for her but…"

"It was just bad luck. Even if you were there you probably would have just died as well." Konata took the lighter out and flicked it open and shut a couple of times before Tsukasa spoke up.

"You were all she thought about when I was with her. She was so worried about you."

"Really?" Miki asked. When Tsukasa nodded Miki started crying silently and said, "I wish I could have spoken to her again. I don't want to die here, not without seeing my mom or my sister again. And the worst part is I can _feel_ myself dying: I can't feel anything below my waist… and it's hard to breathe." Konata and Tsukasa didn't say anything-_couldn't _say anything- as Miki continued sobbing. A minute passed before the sobbing started to subside and Tsukasa looked up at her slowly moving her arms and tilting her head up. "Oh my…"

"What?" Tsukasa asked and looked up at the ceiling with Konata glancing back at Miki.

"I can see stars. I've never seen them shine so brightly before." Miki started crying and tried to reach toward the ceiling.

"But I don't-" Tsukasa started but stopped when she saw Konata shaking her head.

"Mai, I-I'm coming…" Miki stretched as far as she could before she let out a final breath and slunk over. Konata looked down sadly while Tsukasa didn't move at all. Eventually the question had to be asked.

"I- is she dead?"

"…Yeah, she is. I better get her off the wall. No one deserves to be strung up like an animal after death," Konata answered and walked over to Miki. Tsukasa watched her try to reach for the ropes before deciding to help her.

* * *

><p>It wasn't what anyone would have wanted, left lying in a pool of almost ankle deep water with a handkerchief covering her face, but it was the best Tsukasa and Konata could do. A few minutes of silence passed the two of the before Konata spoke up.<p>

"You're a shrine maiden or something right? Shouldn't you say something?"

Tsukasa gulped and said, "I don't know. I've never really been to a funeral, so…"

"Then just wish that she gets to the afterlife or whatever. We have to get moving though, so make it quick."

"U-uh, ok." Tsukasa tightly clasped her hands together and closed her eyes. She wished for exactly what Konata suggested in addition to an apology. A minute silently passed until Tsukasa opened her eyes and lowered her hands.

"Well, it doesn't look like we can get out this way. We should probably look somewhere else." Konata turned around and started walking to the back wall.

"Why did you say that?"

"Huh?"

"You said Mai died quickly, but you weren't there when that happened."

"Does it matter? Put yourself in your shoes for a moment." Konata picked her pipe and turned to Tsukasa before continuing, "You just found out your best friend died in a world where it's very likely that they died horribly. Wouldn't you prefer to know it was quick and painless?"

"I… yes, I would."

"Then why are you arguing about this? Come on, we have to go." Konata slung the pipe over her shoulder and walked out the door they came through with Tsukasa not too far behind. She had managed to catch up with her when Konata stopped and looked back at her with a finger on her lips. Tsukasa nodded and the pair slowly walked to where the hallway intersected with the entrance. Konata held her free hand back to Tsukasa who quietly gave her the flashlight. Konata clicked it on and swept it down the hallway left to right, nothing showing in the light despite the static from Tsukasa's phone.

"Nothing," Konata whispered and handed the flashlight back to Tsukasa, "come on, let's try the faculty office." Tsukasa nodded with an affirmative 'hm' and followed Konata as she headed down the hallway to the left. With every step they took, the static grew louder until a screech sounded from the darkness in front of them and a flash of white sprang towards them. Konata reacted quickly with a downward swing of her pipe, which connected with the monster's head and was quickly followed by a second swing across its face that knocked it down.

"Um, where did you find that?" Tsukasa asked just as Konata brought the pipe down for a killing blow. Blood slowly leaked out of its head as Konata inspected the now slightly bent pipe.

"Would you believe the janitor's closet?" she asked with a shrug. Suddenly second screech from behind them pushed them to run down the hallway until they reached the faculty office, which was thankfully unlocked. They rushed inside and closed the door leaning against it. Tsukasa shut the flashlight off and sank to the floor to catch her breath. After a few minutes of quietly listening to shuffling on the other side of the door Tsukasa broke the silence.

"So, where do we go now?" Tsukasa asked.

"Try and remember where we've been already, I'll look around a little," Konata said pushing herself off the door and brushed her hand along the desks. "Can you turn the light back on?"

"Oh, sorry." Tsukasa turned on her flashlight and lightly scratched her forehead in thought. "I've seen some of the track field, all of the first floor hallway, and most of the second floor."

"Too bad most of the doors are locked; maybe then we could find something useful." Konata opened a drawer and looked annoyed t the contents, "I knew it, that teacher was always a little iffy for my tastes."

"Iffy?"

"It's kind of hard to describe, but I never liked him."

"Um…ok. And what do you mean useful?"

"You know, things like weapons, first aid kits, anything that look important." Konata coughed a couple of times, closed the drawer, and waved at Tsukasa. "Can you help me out over here?" Tsukasa pushed herself up to her feet and joined Konata in looking through the drawers. The stifling silence was broken every few seconds by Konata's coughs.

"I can't find anything. There's just… test answers I think," Tsukasa said holding up a piece of paper.

"Really?!" Konata said displaying a positive emotion for the first time that Tsukasa has seen. She let out another cough and asked, "When's it from?"

"Um, July of last year."

"Pfft, figures. Can't ever be easy can it?" Konata coughed a couple more times and collapsed against a desk in a dreadful coughing fit.

"Are you alright?" Tsukasa asked leaning over the desks.

"Give me a minute," Konata answered and coughed some more. Tsukasa wasn't sure what to do, so she slowly walked to Konata and lightly patted her on the back. She didn't know if it helped or not, but Konata stopped coughing after minute and took a couple deep breaths. "We gotta get out of here soon, I don't think I'll last much longer."

"Why, are you sick?"

"Don't worry about it." Konata straightened up and took a test breath, "I'm ok now. We should probably get going."

"Where should we start though? The school is big and those monsters are every-"

"Shh! Did you hear that?" Tsukasa and Konata listened closely and heard a heavy stomping noise. Konata pointed at herself and the door before she sneaked over to the door with Tsukasa behind her. She opened the door just an inch and peeked outside. "Turn your light off," she ordered

"Do you see anything?" Tsukasa asked. Konata didn't say anything, only motioning for Tsukasa to keep quiet. The stomping grew louder and soon Konata saw the source of the noise.

Because of the darkness of the hallway, Konata could only really see the bright red of its shirt. It stopped in front of the door and look around, its bright red eyes glowing in contrast to its face. Tsukasa moved just a little to see through the crack and covered her mouth to suppress a gasp. Konata glared back at her and looked back just in time to see…whatever that was leave down the hallway.

"What is that thing doing here?" Tsukasa whispered and sank to her knees.

"You've seen that thing before?" Konata asked.

"That's the monster that killed Mai." Tsukasa started shivering and said, "It saw my face and it's coming for me." Her shaking worsened and her eyes started to tear up when Konata lifted her chin to look into her eyes.

"I don't know if that's true or not, but you can't lose it right now. We need to get out of here, and that thing out there means we're running out of time." Konata wiped away Tsukasa's tears with a thumb while those gray eyes showed the slightest bit of sympathy. "So just… hold it together for a bit longer, okay?" Tsukasa sniffed and wiped her eyes before nodding silently. Konata stood up and pushed her glasses up with her middle finger.

"And besides," she continued and held a hand out to Tsukasa with a small smile. Tsukasa grabbed her hand and was pulled up to her feet as Konata finished with, "Kagami would kill me if something were to happen to you."

Tsukasa, while shocked by the rather blunt statement, couldn't help but laugh a small, embarrassed laugh. Konata picked up the pipe that lay discarded nearby and once again looked over it.

"This isn't going to last much longer," she commented and shrugged at Tsukasa, "Well, let's get going."

"Ok, I'm right behind you."

* * *

><p>The long and very stressful day was finally coming to an end for Kagami. That clock couldn't have run any slower for her than it already was, and when it finally signaled the end of the day Kagami was up and out of her classroom like a bolt of lightning.<p>

'_They've got to have come back right?'_ she thought as she walked through the halls, _'It's been a couple of hours. Konata came back by then, so they should be back…right?'_ However, any little hope she had was crushed when she saw Miyuki in the hallway looking very sad. She slowed down and stopped next to Miyuki.

"They didn't show up did they?" she asked her bespectacled friend.

"No. They seem to have left the school entirely," Miyuki said and started playing with her hands. "I'm really worried Kagami-san, with all those disappearances on the news…"

"Don't say things like that. Konata disappeared and she came back! So…" Kagami rubbed her arm and watched Miyuki give her a small smile.

"I'm sure they're safe. We just have to wait and see." Miyuki's reassurances did little to alleviate Kagami's concerns, but she still appreciated her trying. "Oh, I almost forgot!" Miyuki suddenly said and handed Kagami a bag, "I got their bags and gave some notes for today's homework for when they get back."

"Oh, thanks Miyuki. I can hold on to Konata's bag as well if it's alright with you."

"Well, if it won't be a bother to you. You do live closer to Konata than I do. I'll give you it when we go our own ways." Kagami nodded and turned to lead the way down the hallway toward the stairs. Despite making half hearted conversation with Miyuki, her mind was on Tsukasa and Konata.

'_I hope they're alright,'_ she thought once she reached the shoe lockers. While she was there Kagami did a quick search through Tsukasa's bag. "Huh? Tsukasa's cell phone isn't in here. I thought she left it here."

"Maybe she took it with her when we weren't looking?" Miyuki offered placing a finger on her chin, "and if she did that…"

"She might still have it," Kagami finished took out her cell phone, "I'm going to try calling her." Kagami quickly brought up Tsukasa's number and walked outside as it rang. After one ring is just went to a busy tone. "It's busy. It's just like what happened with Konata."

"She won't answer her phone and we only get busy tones when we try," Miyuki said and closed her eyes in thought, "and according to the news this isn't the first time someone vanished into thin air. What could possibly be happening?"

"I just hope they're alright. I'll keep trying to call both of them every half hour or so. One of them has to pick up eventually right?"

"Yes, I hope they come back soon."

* * *

><p>"Quick in here!" Konata yelled and opened the door. Tsukasa ran past her and Konata slammed the door in the face of the two monsters chasing them and threw her body against it as they started banging against it.<p>

"Where did they come from?" Tsukasa asked breathing heavily behind Konata, "It was quiet until they appeared out of nowhere. I don't like them."

"Me neither. Can you do a quick look around while I wait for them to go away?" Tsukasa nodded and made an affirmative noise before looking around the room. The room was empty, save for one student desk sitting in the middle of the room and various pieces of trash and debris were scattered on the floor. Tsukasa walked up to the desk and saw it hadn't fared well in the past: various insults and graphic images were carved into its surface. Tsukasa didn't want to look any further at it and walked past it to the window.

"Where are we? This doesn't look like any classroom in our school."

"Yeah, because everywhere else till now looked exactly like our school." Konata listened quietly for a moment and scooted away from the door. "I think they're gone for now. Better be careful though, they might be back."

"Ok." Tsukasa tried looking out the windows, failing because of the thick darkness, and ran a hand across one of the bars across the windows. She looked back at Konata who was walking to the desk. "How did you get out last time? You've been here before right?"

"Yeah, but I can't really remember. It's like a bad fever dream," Konata answered and leaned against the desk, "I think I talked to someone and woke up a few blocks from my house." She sighed and waved Tsukasa over. "Not that it matters anyway, since I don't think we can get out. Anywhere that isn't infested with monsters is locked or blocked off. Let me see your light for a second."

"There has to be a way," Tsukasa said taking her flashlight off when an idea hit her, one that filled her with dread. "The basement."

"What about it?" Konata asked taking the flashlight and peering into the desk.

"Um, before I came _here_ here, there was a passage in the boiler room that brought me here. It might still be there, if we can get there."

"Basement huh? I got the feeling that big nasty thing would be there waiting for us. What's this?" Konata reached into the desk and pulled out, of all things, a pill bottle. She shook it a couple of times and, hearing nothing inside, sighed and looked it over.

"Not a thing in it. Here, you can have it," she said and handed the bottle to Tsukasa.

"What? But I don't-"

"Just take it, it might be useful later." Tsukasa looked down at the bottle and slowly took it and stashed it in her shirt pocket. Konata nodded and gave Tsukasa her light back before turning back to the door. "Ok, basement. I think we can make our way back there," she said leading Tsukasa to the door, "I think we just need to-"

Sharp metal suddenly burst through the door, shocking Konata and Tsukasa into falling backwards. The blade retracted and a piercing red eye looked through the crack at them.

"Oh no, it's found us!" Tsukasa screamed and hid behind Konata, "What do we do?"

"I… I don't know," Konata said. The red eye looked at them for a few more moments before moving away so one of the creature's arms squeezed through the hole. Its blood stained hand felt around a little, leaving red stains on the door wherever it touched, before pulling out. Heavy footsteps pounded away from the door as both girls caught their breaths. Tsukasa realized she had grabbed onto Konata and pulled away, though Konata didn't seem to notice.

"It's toying with us," she whispered as she stood up and walked to the hole in the door.

"Toying?" Tsukasa asked and stood up as well, "what do you-"

"It's just like everything else that's happened to us: the locked doors, the blocked hallways, the monsters, watching that girl die, this place is toying with me and it's starting to _piss me OFF!"_ Konata slammed a hand against the door with a frustrated scream and yelled, "What do I have to do to get out of here?!"

"Konata, calm down!" Tsukasa shouted, flinching slightly when Konata looked back at her. "You… might attract…" she trailed off, though it seemed to do its job of calming her friend down. Konata took a deep breath and placed a hand on her forehead.

"You're right, anger has never helped me in the past, as much as I wish it did," she said and sat down against the wall next to the door. Tsukasa gave her a curious look and scratched her chin with a finger.

"Do you… want to talk about it?" she asked. Konata's hair fell in front of her face, but didn't say anything, so Tsukasa continued. "You seem bothered by something and I'm worried about you. It might help if-"

"No," Konata interrupted and coughed before looking up at Tsukasa, "we have more important things to worry about right now, like getting to that basement." She coughed a couple more times and shakily stood up before saying, "Let's get out of first. If you're still interested after that, I'll humor you." Tsukasa nodded in agreement and Konata pushed off the wall, quickly covering up another cough.

"You need to do something about that cough later. I heard it's really bad to have a cough for too long."

"Don't I know it. Alright, I have a feeling Red's going to be waiting for us out there, so I say we just run for it and knock down anything in our way."

"Do you think we can do this?"

"Let's hope so." Konata walked to the door and placed a hand on the handle, "we go on three, ok?" Tsukasa nodded and got into the best running position she could. "Ok, three!"

Konata threw the door open and ran out, though it took Tsukasa a moment to realize what happened and followed. She saw Konata turn a corner to her left and heard a monster roar behind her. Tsukasa didn't look behind her to see what it was and opted to just run for her life. She barely reached the corner when a Kagami monster leaped around it and barely missed her.

The following chase were some of the most hectic few minutes in Tsukasa's life, running through dark hallways with only the distant figure of Konata to guide her. She had only now realized she didn't know where exactly in the school she was, and yet she somehow managed to find her way to the first floor and the basement access. She ran through the door that Konata held open and ran down the stairs while her friend shut the door.

"This is too easy, I don't like this," Konata said and rushed passed Tsukasa, "we have to keep moving!" Tsukasa took a deep, struggled breath and followed Konata further into the basement. "So which room did you go into last time?"

"The… the boiler room… I think," Tsukasa answered in between breaths. Konata looked at each door and pressed against one, a heavy looking iron door, and growled when it didn't budge.

"Of course it's locked, and the door knob is missing too." Tsukasa looked at where Konata was pointing and saw that she was right. No door knob, just a keyhole. "Where the hell could the key be? Let's think for a minute." Tsukasa was only too happy to agree and leaned against the wall while Konata paced next to her. Out of curiosity, Tsukasa reached into her pocket and pulled out the pill bottle and read the label. It wasn't an actual label though, more like a piece of tape with a medicine name she didn't recognize written on it as well as a dosage.

"I never heard of this medicine before," Tsukasa commented and tried to take the cap off, "what's it for?"

"Does something like that really matter at this point?!" Konata asked clutching her head, "we're trapped here and I have no idea where to go to look for that goddamn key!" Tsukasa at this point succeeded in getting the cap off and hummed in curiosity at the small string attached to the inside of it. Konata continued ranting to herself as Tsukasa followed the string inside the bottle and saw a faint shimmer inside it.

"I… think I found it," she said and stuck a finger inside to scrape it out, feeling cool metal when she touched it.

"What do you mean you found… oh don't tell me it's in there," Konata said and walked over to Tsukasa.

"I don't know, I can't seem to get it out." Tsukasa stuck her tongue out and tried her hardest to get it, but failed.

"Let me see that," Konata said and took the bottle from Tsukasa's hands. She peered inside with one eye before dropping it to the ground and stomping on it as hard as she could. Plastic cracked under her foot and Tsukasa jumped back a little at the sudden action. Konata moved her foot out of the way and kneeled down to pick up a metal object, which was indeed a key.

"I hope to whatever god is watching us that this is the real thing," she said moving to the door and sticking the key in the hole. She gave it a swift clockwise turn and heard a loud sound come from the door. Konata blinked a couple of times and pressed against the door again, this time rewarded with a loud groan from the hinges. "Alright! Don't just stand there Hiiragi, help me."

Tsukasa let out a startled 'oh' and joined Konata in pushing the door, the groaning of the hinges assaulting her ears as it slowly opened. Eventually it was wide enough for Konata to slip through and start pulling from the other side.

"There's a hallway on this side. Hurry and get through so I can see."

"Coming!" Tsukasa stuck an arm through and started squeezing through when her phone went crazy. The highest pitch of static she's ever heard blasted from her pocket, and yet she thought she heard something else in it.

"…su….kasa…"

Then she heard stomping. Her flashlight gave enough light for her to see the monster with the sweatshirt round the corner, its red eyes piercing her into paralysis. She heard screeching and saw it lift a monster that looked like her into sight, struggling and clawing against its captor. It's efforts proved futile when the larger monster effortlessly snapped its neck and dropped the corpse at its feet.

Then it moved toward her.

"Konata, help!" Tsukasa managed to yell and tried even harder to squeeze through the space. Konata grabbed her arm and managed to get her through just as Red got in arms reach of Tsukasa. "Run!" was all Tsukasa could say as she ran past Konata and down the hallway, hearing her friend keep pace behind her.

Splashes of water sounded underfoot as dark concrete hallways passed her by while the vicious sound of metal crashing behind her drove her forward. Tsukasa could feel her legs tire and her eyes sting with tears as she pushed forward.

"What does it want with me?" she asked nearly running into a wall, "I didn't do anything!"

"Save your breath!" Konata yelled and pushed Tsukasa forward. They ran until they reached another corner and Tsukasa risked a glance back, immediately regretting it when she saw those red eyes shining at her from the darkness. Then she saw something far down the corridor, something that filled her with hope.

A light, and a door to go with it.

Then that hope was immediately dashed when Konata tripped and Tsukasa stepped on something that gave way under her weight. She looked back just in time to see a heavy iron gate slam in between her and Konata, mere inches away from the black haired girl.

"Dammit, no!" Konata shouted and yanked on the bars, "I'm so close!" The hallway filled with a roar from behind Konata and Tsukasa pulled on the bars too.

"It won't move! What do we do?" Tsukasa asked and looked pleadingly at Konata. Her friend didn't answer, instead pressing her back against the bars and taking a deep breath.

"I guess I'll take my chances and look for another way out," she said and looked back at Tsukasa with a sad smile. "Guess I'll see you later." Tsukasa blinked and reached through the bars, but failed to grab Konata when she pushed off the bars and ran down the hallway.

"Konataaaa!" Tsukasa yelled and sank to her knees as her friend disappeared into the darkness beyond her flashlight. She pressed her forehead against a bar and started crying quietly. After a minute of this, her knees started to hurt and she started to stand up when she heard thumping and static.

She looked up and saw the red sweatshirt standing a foot away from her on the other side of the iron bars. She screamed and fell back in fright, the water splashing onto her skirt and lower back as she waited to see what it would do.

It didn't do anything, save for staring at her and moving slightly from the breathing. That scared Tsukasa more than anything it had done before, and she could swear it could see everything about her. There was no way she could have gotten up any faster than she had or ran as fast as she did towards the light. She barely payed enough attention to hear the faint sound of a siren.

When she got close enough to the light, Tsukasa could see the light came from a doorway with stairs leading up. So she ran up those stairs as fast as she could, an exhausting effort that must have taken far less time than it seemed, until she reached another door and slammed into it as hard as she could and tripped into the space behind it.

The door slammed into the wall and clicked shut behind her as Tsukasa laid there for a moment to rest her tired muscles. She found the strength to lift herself up into a sitting position and, much to her surprise, found herself back in the school. No darkness, no monsters, and the only pressing atmosphere was that of an empty school. From a nearby window, she could see sunlight streaming in.

"W-where am I? Am I safe?"

"Tsukasa, is that you?" Tsukasa perked up and looked to her right to see a girl dash down the stairs. A small, blue haired girl.

"Konata!" Tsukasa climbed to her feet and stumbled to her friend, who ran to meet her and eagerly returned the hug Tsukasa gave her. "You're ok!"

"So are you," Konata replied and released the hug, pushing Tsukasa away slightly to get a good look at her, "You had me worried sick. I've been looking all over for you for the past half hour."

"I'm sorry, but it's good to see you back to normal."

"Back to normal? What do you mean?" Tsukasa gave a questioning look at Konata, who returned it two fold, and folded her hands against her chest.

"You don't…? But… in the Dark World you…"

"Dark World? Wait, you went there?"

"Didn't you?"

Konata shook her head and said, "After our little incident with the elevator, I heard sirens and passed out. I woke up in our classroom here and have been looking for you ever since." Tsukasa looked at the ground and started thinking when Konata leaned over to meet her eye. "Did something happen to you there?"

"I…" Tsukasa started and shook her head, "I must have imagined it. It's still good to see you." Konata stared at her for a moment before shrugging and walking to a window. Tsukasa followed her and she couldn't have been gladder to see the almost total lack of fog. "Are we safe?"

"Yep, we seem to be back in the real world. Phone coverage and everything."

"Ah, I gotta call sis!" Tsukasa frantically searched her pockets before bringing out her phone and typing in Kagami's number, "she must be so worried."

"I'll bet. According to the clocks, we've been gone for three hours."

"Three hours?!" Tsukasa barely had time to absorb that information when the phone picked up.

"Hello?"

"Kagami? It's Tsukasa."

"Tsukasa?! Mom, it's her!" Tsukasa sagged a little at the thought of worrying her family as Kagami continued, "Where are you?"

"Um, I'm at the school with Konata."

"The school, but we checked everywhere there and you two just vanished! What happened, you've been gone for three hours! Mom and Dad were about to file a police report!"

"Um, I was-"

Before Tsukasa could say any more, yelped and grabbed the phone from her hands and put it to her ear.

"Hey Kagami, its Konata," she said rubbing the back of her head, "sorry for interrupting, but Tsukasa's real tired."

"What?" Kagami asked annoyed.

"She just barely woke up. I found her asleep in the middle of the hall, weird huh?"

"No I wasn't!" Tsukasa protested.

"Anyway, you don't have to worry about her. I'll get her back home in no time! I'll stake my honor as an otaku on it!"

"That's not worth anything. Put Tsukasa back on."

"What was that? I can't here you, I'm going through a tunnel!"

"No you're not! Don't you dare hang up on me!"

Konata did just that, sighing in relief as she closed the phone.

"Konata, why did you do that?" Tsukasa asked angrily.

"I was saving us some trouble," Konata said simply and grabbed Tsukasa's hands. "Listen to me, you can't tell anyone what happened here today. Not Kagami, not Miyuki, not your parents, no one. Do you get what I'm saying?"

"N-no, why?"

"Everyone would think you're crazy if you go around talking about monsters and the like! Why do you think _I_ didn't tell anyone that?"

"Well, I guess. But maybe sis could-"

"No one! Promise me that." Tsukasa and Konata stared into each other's eyes until Tsukasa swallowed a little.

"I won't tell anyone, I promise." Konata sighed in relief and let go of Tsukasa's hands, leaving her cell phone in them. "But why is this happening? Why did I go to that other world?"

"I wish I knew Tsukasa, but hopefully we can figure this out. For now, let's just go home." Konata turned and started walking down the hallway with Tsukasa. They got out through the front doors and managed to get past the main gate when Tsukasa spoke up.

"Why do people say they're going through a tunnel when they want to end a call?"

"Well, I think it's because…"

* * *

><p>The walk and train ride to Tsukasa's house was a welcome relief given the day's events. Kagami called again and Tsukasa managed to clear some things up (among them that she couldn't remember anything from her disappearance). Luckily, Kagami bought it and didn't press the issue any further.<p>

"I could use a bath," Tsukasa commented when they left the train at her station.

"I'm with you on that girl," Konata said moving her left arm, "my shoulder is sore again."

"Does it hurt? I can't imagine being bitten like that would be pleasant."

"It's getting better, but I wouldn't complain about getting some rest."

"Well we don't have school tomorrow, so you should have plenty of time then."

"Oh yeah, that's right. Don't make any plans tomorrow, you have to tell me what happened to you."

"Um… ok. Just us?"

"Just us. We're going to have to think of something to do alone though so Kagami doesn't snoop."

"That's not a nice thing to say about sis. I don't think she'd like to hear you say something like that." The pair realized they had reached Tsukasa's house and she rushed up to the front door. She opened it and found Kagami on the other side and leapt into her twin's arms.

"I'm glad that you're safe," Kagami said and got a good look at Tsukasa, "what happened to you? You look like you've been through a storm drain."

"Um, maybe? I still can't remember what happened," Tsukasa said with a small laugh.

"I'm fine too, by the way," Konata said with a wave to Kagami along with her signature smile.

"Sorry about that, I'm glad you're safe too." Kagami said and hugged Konata as well.

"Aww, I didn't know you cared so much Kagamin~."

"Oh shut up! How can you find the effort to make jokes about this?!"

"Easily, if it gets you worked up." Konata managed to dodge a swing from Kagami and started backing away from the door, "Anyway, I gotta get home. Bye."

"I don't think so," Kagami said with a smile and held up Konata's school bag, "not without this."

"Oh no, really?"

"All your homework from today is in here, and I even took the liberty of putting the books you need in there." Kagami thrust the bag into Konata's arms and added, "So remember to do them, ok? And thanks for finding Tsukasa again, really." Kagami walked back inside and waved at Konata along with Tsukasa and shut the door. Konata looked down at the bag and walked away from the house sadly.

'_How is it surviving monster attacks seems preferable to doing homework? That shouldn't make sense!'_


	13. Brainstorming

Tsukasa walked out of the bathroom busily drying off her hair with a towel. The hot water was definitely relaxing and helped soother her nerves after the _very_ harrowing day she had. She was only a few steps away from her room when she felt something tap her shoulder. She turned around suddenly, fully prepared to scream her head off when she found it was just Kagami.

"Geez, you're awfully jumpy tonight," Kagami commented as Tsukasa sighed in relief, "something on your mind?"

"Oh no, it's just…" Tsukasa paused as she tried to think of a good explanation, "…do you know how you get kind of shaky after running a lot?"

"Yes?"

"It's kind of like that. I'll be fine sis, I just need a good night sleep."

"If you say so, just try and get some of your homework done before you sleep ok?" For a moment Tsukasa thought Kagami was going to ask something else, but whatever it was could apparently wait.

"I will," Tsukasa said and opened the door to her room, "good night Kagami."

"Good night." Tsukasa only spared her twin one last passing glance as she shut her door. Once it was closed Tsukasa let out a sigh and walked over to her desk. At the very least Tsukasa tried to do her homework, but it just wasn't going to happen. She felt her neck tingle every now and again and she swore she heard some kind of howling in the distance.

Then her cell phone rang and scared her out of her seat. She scrambled up and took it in her hands to find it was Konata's house calling her. Without another moment she opened the phone and placed it to her ear.

"Hello, Tsukasa speaking?"

"Hi Tsukasa, it's Konata." Tsukasa sighed in relief on hearing her friend's voice. "I just uh… wanted to check on you. See how you were doing."

"I'm doing alright, just doing homework." Tsukasa righted the chair and sat down and said, "You scared me a little when you called though."

"Oh, sorry about that. So… nothing odd has happened?"

"No. Is something wrong Konata?"

Konata was silent on the other end for a few seconds before finally asking, "Have you seen the news tonight?"

"The news? No, why?"

"Now we _really_ need to talk tomorrow. We can just go to a café or something. Does that sound good?"

"Um, sure. What's happened Konata?"

"I'll explain tomorrow, since I don't want to ruin any chance you'll have of sleeping tonight. I'll come pick you up, ok?"

"O-ok."

"Alright, good night Tsukasa." Tsukasa hardly had the time to return the gesture when Konata hung up her phone. Tsukasa closed her phone and spent the rest of the night wondering what Konata wanted to talk about, even as she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

><p>The next morning Konata made her way to the Hiiragi house with her mind weighed down by more than just lunch with Tsukasa on her mind. She couldn't be sure how Tsukasa would react to what she wanted to talk about, but she was the only one she could talk to and be taken seriously.<p>

'_Man, this whole thing sucks,'_ she thought as she approached the door to her destination and knocked on it. It was only just then that Konata had remembered Tsukasa's habit of sleeping in on days off and felt a little anxious at just who would answer. Just as she thought that the door opened and Konata felt her eye twitch a little at who had answered.

"Oh hey, its Kagami's little friend!" Konata successfully resisted the urge to sigh at Matsuri's comment. She was probably just joking, hopefully. "So what brings you to our house today? Kagami right?"

"Well no, I made plans with Tsukasa today," Konata said and tried to look past Matsuri into the house and asked, "is she up?"

"I don't think so, but she usually doesn't stay asleep longer than now." Matsuri then opened the door and motioned at Konata, "Don't stand out there just because I answered the door. Kagami's awake after all."

"Oh is she?" Konata asked suddenly feeling much better as she walked inside and shut the door behind her. Matsuri walked into the living room and Konata heard her name being spoken as she took her shoes off. Konata had enough time to push her shoes aside and rub her shoulder before Kagami walked out and waved at her.

"Hey there Konata, you're here early," Kagami said and raised an eyebrow slightly, "why are you here so early? Don't you usually sleep in on weekends?"

"Yeah I would if I could Kagamin. I couldn't get a wink of sleep last night," Konata said and let out a small yawn.

"Is that really a problem?" Kagami asked and led Konata into the living room, "you tend to stay up late gaming or something anyway right?"

"Well yeah, but I always choose to do that. Actual insomnia is weird for me." Konata rubbed her eyes a little and waved to Kagami's father as she sat down at a table with Kagami. "Hopefully this day with Tsukasa will help me out a little."

"Yeah, a bit of relaxation should be good for both of you," Kagami stated and saw her father nod in agreement out of the corner of her eye. "Tsukasa probably doesn't notice, but I can tell when she's worried or scared. It comes with the territory of being a big sister."

"Oh really, is it some kind of psychic thing?" Konata asked with a wide grin.

"Grow up, she was just acting really jumpy last night. I'm actually glad she got to sleep last night, that's a good sign."

"She's even sleeping late like always," Konata said and pointed up at the ceiling to add, "So when do you think she's gonna wake up?"

"Tsukasa? I can probably go shake her awake if you-" just then a crash sounded from upstairs drawing the attention of everybody in the room. Konata had all kinds of horrible situations rush through her head at the sound, but silently shook those away and looked at Kagami as she sighed. "That might be her. I'll go check it out," she said, stood up, and walked out of the room.

Konata leaned onto the table and took a small breath to relax. _'Jeez, all of this is getting to me,'_ she thought and ran a hand through her hair, _'I really have to chill out or I'm going to burn myself out.'_

"So how are you feeling?" Konata snapped straight up and looked over at Kagami's dad, who was giving her a questioning look. "You've been through a lot in the past few days from what I can gather, so are you alright?"

"Oh right. Yes, I'm fine sir," Konata said and relaxed again, "it's just that some things are freaking me out a little. You know, vivid nightmares and the like." _'Really vivid nightmares,'_ Konata thought and shivered just enough to be barely noticeable. "I'll be fine, I just need some time to relax a little."

"Well, ok. I just wanted you to know to know that there are a lot of people who worry for you."

Konata nodded and smiled as she said, "Thanks sir. I know that, but it still feels good to hear it." Konata then looked toward the doorway and waited for either Kagami or Tsukasa to walk through it. It took a couple of minutes but both twins entered the room after a while. Tsukasa still looked tired, but she was at least awake and fully dressed.

"Good morning Konata," Tsukasa said with a small yawn, "I hope you weren't waiting long for me."

"Oh don't worry about that, it's no problem," Konata said and gave Tsukasa a small wave. "You're up and ready now, so what do you say we get going?"

"Oh... um, where were we going again?" Konata raised an eyebrow slightly but shrugged and stood up after a second.

"Don't worry about that, I have a good idea where to go." Konata then looked at Kagami and asked, "So are you going to be coming along Kagami?"

"Wasn't this something you two planned to go by yourselves?" Kagami asked giving Konata a look, "so why ask me out?"

"Just being polite. I mean, doesn't it feel horrible when you're friends go out but you're not invited?"

"Yeah, but you're still not going to let me come along are you?"

"You can come only if you're alright with not knowing what we're talking about." Konata then gave Kagami a small wink.

"Yeah, I'm sure I can live without knowing what you guys are going to do. Just try not to spook her ok?"

"Spook?!" Tsukasa suddenly shouted and jumped a foot away from Kagami and looked around the room confusedly when she calmed down a little. "What, when did I get to the living room?"

"Were you so out of it that you didn't notice that you came down here?" Kagami asked in disbelief, "we even had a conversation about what you'd be doing with Konata!"

"We did?" Tsukasa asked and jumped a little when she saw Konata standing there, "Ah! H-how long have you been there Konata?!"

"Oh Tsukasa, I've been here for a while," Konata answered and started walking past toward the twins, "I'll be waiting outside, but don't worry about keeping me waiting Tsukasa. We have all day to do that stuff." Konata gave Tsukasa a small wave and walked past her out to the front door.

"W-waiting?" Tsukasa asked as she watched Konata walk away and looked at Kagami and her father and laughed a little. "I think I slept a little too well last night."

* * *

><p>Tsukasa didn't make Konata wait that long and they were soon on their way to the train station in silence. At least as much silence as they could muster with the light presence of fog around them. Tsukasa looked around nervously about it and played with her hands a little until Konata spoke up.<p>

"I know it's unsettling, but you better get used to it. It's been almost a week since this started for me and it hasn't gotten any lighter than it has right now."

"R-really?" Tsukasa asked quietly and scratched her cheek. "It's weird thinking about all of this. It's like… I don't really feel all that safe anymore."

"I know the feeling. The world seems all fine until something like this comes along and shows how easy it is to strip it away." Konata sighed, pressed a finger to her forehead, and said, "Man this is really depressing to talk about. I really am sorry that you had to get dragged into this Tsukasa."

"I-it's ok Konata. We can figure this out right?"

"I hope so." By this point Konata and Tsukasa had made it to the train station. Konata was reluctant to continue the conversation as long as there were people around, so the train ride was spent in silence for the two girls, at least on the topic they wanted to talk about. It took a few minutes and a couple of stops for them to get to their stop and once they were out of the train and away from most people Tsukasa asked something that has been on her mind.

"Konata, what happened the first time you went there? I don't think you ever talked about it." Apparently Tsukasa's question hit a sore spot for Konata given how she flinched a little, but other than that Konata just rubbed the back of her head nervously.

"Well, it's kind of a long story," Konata answered and stopped walking to look Tsukasa in the eye, "but I guess I do have to tell it huh?" Tsukasa nodded and offered Konata a small reassuring smile. It seemed to help and Konata sighed and asked, "So did you want the short version or the long version?"

"Well, the simpler the story the better right? But if you think something is important it might be best to say it, don't you agree?"

"Sure thing," Konata said and shot Tsukasa a quick thumbs up before adding, "But before we do that, why don't you get me caught up on what happened to you after we got separated."

"O-oh, that's right! Um… where was that again?"

"The elevator, with that thing chasing us."

"O-oh… well, I guess the first thing I remember is a really loud siren."

* * *

><p>"It took a little while because I didn't want to turn the flashlight on, but I eventually got to our classroom. When I got in, I-"<p>

"Sorry to interrupt Tsukasa, but we're here," Konata said just as they reached the café.

"Already?" Tsukasa asked, "I could have sworn this was farther from the station than this."

"It only seems like it took less time because you were really into telling that story," Konata replied and started rubbing her chin, "like how when you're really into a TV show and before you know it half an hour or even an hour has passed."

"Oh I know what you mean! It's always weird whenever I notice that." Tsukasa gave a small giggle and looked to the café and asked, "So should we go get a seat?"

"Yeah, we can continue talking once we're settled," Konata agreed and led the way into the café. The inside was moderately busy but a waitress came to help Konata and Tsukasa in no time.

"Hello ladies," she said in the normal tone of voice waitresses spoke in, "how can I help you today?"

"Hello, we'd like a table for the two of us," Konata said and spotted a newspaper rack and pointed at it with a thumb before asking, "and are those from today?"

The waitress nodded and said, "Yes they are. They are free to read in the store so feel free to take one. Your table will be this way." The waitress gestured into the café and started walking.

"Go ahead Tsukasa," Konata said and pointed to the newspapers, "I'll catch up once I got one of these."

"Ok," Tsukasa nodded and followed the waitress with only a glance back at Konata as she searched through the rack. True to her word Konata got to their table just as Tsukasa finished placing her order and gave the waitress her own as she sat down. When the waitress had gone Konata looked worriedly down at the newspaper in her hand.

"I still can't believe it made headlines so soon," she said quietly.

"Did something happen? You sounded really worried about something last night too." Konata looked up at Tsukasa and seemed to quietly debate something before handing the newspaper to Tsukasa.

"Don't freak out ok?" was all Konata asked as Tsukasa took the paper and looked at the headline, gasping quietly once it sank in.

"A…a body's been found?" she asked and read the rest of the article.

* * *

><p><em>The recent string of disappearances has unfortunately turned up its first victim. Taro Shinjo, a twenty five year old office worker for a large retail firm, was last spotted returning to his home almost two weeks ago and is believed to have been the first to mysteriously disappear.<em>

_Mr. Shinjo's body was discovered in an alleyway behind a series of residential homes. Although details of the death are currently under investigation, it has been confirmed that it was violent in nature._

_The current whereabouts of any other victims are currently unknown._

* * *

><p>"Oh, that's so sad," Tsukasa said and placed the newspaper down on the table.<p>

"Yeah it is," Konata said with a nod, "but there's a little more to it than that." Konata looked around the café to see if anyone was looking at them before she leaned closer to Tsukasa and pointed at the picture on the newspaper. "I've seen this man before."

"Y-you have?" Tsukasa asked. Konata made a motion to quiet down as the waitress came up to them.

"Sorry for the wait girls, here are your drinks," she said and set two cups in front of Tsukasa and Konata.

"Oh, thank you," Tsukasa said happily.

"Thanks," was Konata's response and took a quick drink of her coffee as she watched the waitress walk away. When she was out of earshot she turned back to Tsukasa and said, "Yes, it was a few days ago when I first disappeared. I… well, I ran across a man not too long into it. He…" Konata stopped and looked down at the paper sadly.

"Oh…" Tsukasa said quietly and gently placed her hand on top of Konata's. "I'm so sorry Konata."

"Thanks," Konata said and quickly brushed a hand over her eyes and looked down at the picture again. "I don't think I'll ever forget his face and this is the same man, without a doubt." Konata leaned away from the table and took another drink, Tsukasa deciding to do the same with hers (hot chocolate, since she didn't really like coffee.)

"So, what does this mean?" Tsukasa asked and silently tapped her fingers against her cup in thought.

"I think it at least tells us some things about how those worlds work, or at least the fog world," Konata said and set her coffee aside. "Try and follow me on this. This Taro guy leaves work one day and somehow gets caught in the fog world right? When he realizes what's happened he runs and tries to find help."

Tsukasa nodded and quietly added, "And when that doesn't work, he… dies."

"Yeah, but a few days later he's found here. It might be that the fog world is closer to here than I thought. One way or another, you eventually do come back." Tsukasa thought this over for a moment until a thought struck her.

"Wait, if that's true, them Mai-"

"Might be found too," Konata finished with a nod. "I do remember making it back to the first floor and seeing fog outside before I passed out, so if she is found it confirms that."

"…What about the Dark World?" Tsukasa asked, the memory of Miki coming back to her, "Any ideas on that?"

"None," Konata answered glumly and sighed. "That place is weird, like nothing works the way it should. I can't think of anything to do other than waiting and seeing what happens." Konata then leaned against the table and said, "Speaking of which, what happened after you got to our classroom?"

"What? Oh, right!" Tsukasa tapped her chin and, before she knew what she was doing, she said, "I met a girl."

"A girl? Was it Mai's friend?"

Tsukasa shook her head and said, "No I… found her later. This girl was about our age, she had our school's uniform, and she had long black hair." Tsukasa hesitated for a moment and added, "She… reminded me of you a lot Konata."

"Really?" Konata crossed her arms and closed her eyes in thought. "That's a little weird, but not the strangest thing that's happened recently. I wonder if it's the same girl."

"The same girl?" Tsukasa asked with a tilt of her head.

"During my first trip, right before I got to your house, I ran across a girl too. It was dark so I didn't get a good look at her, but I did see she had long black hair. I got the impression that she knew me too, and how many girls with black hair do we know?"

"Not that many," Tsukasa answered and sighed in relief. This whole situation was strange enough as it is and having to explain that she saw another Konata wouldn't have helped.

"Alright then, we'll come back to this later," Konata said with a small wave, "so you met her and then what?"

"W-well, we talked for a little while and then we started heading to the front door."

* * *

><p>Both Konata and Tsukasa were caught up in their conversation that they didn't notice the waitress come up to them until she had asked, "Hello girls, how was everything?"<p>

"Huh? Oh, it was great," Konata said with a glance down at her empty cup, "I guess it's time to pay huh?" The waitress nodded and handed a slip of paper to Konata.

"You can pay at the register when you're ready. Have a nice day." The waitress gave a light bow and left the two girls alone. Konata took a look at the paper and gave it a small annoyed look.

"Jeez, why does a cup of coffee have to cost so much?" she asked setting it down and digging through her pockets for her wallet.

"Um, I can help pay if you need me to," Tsukasa offered with a nervous laugh.

"Nah, I think I have enough," Konata said. When she got her wallet out and checked inside she sighed and said, "Scratch that, can you spot me 50 yen?" Tsukasa nodded and dug out a coin to give to Konata, which she accepted and stood up from the table. "I'll go pay if you want to wait outside Tsukasa."

"Ok," Tsukasa said and started to stand, but stopped when she saw her hot chocolate. "Um, maybe I should finish this before we leave. I don't want to leave a bad impression."

"Yeah, but there's nothing worse than drinking a hot drink that's gone cold. If you really want to finish it, I'd suggest just chugging the whole thing and get it over with."

"I suppose," Tsukasa whispered and stared at the drink before nodding, grabbing the drink, and drinking the whole thing at once. To Konata's surprise and awe Tsukasa actually managed to do it, even if she ended up coughing a little afterwards.

"Wow, nice going Tsukasa," Konata said giving her a thumbs up, which Tsukasa nervously scratched the back of her head at. "Well I'm off to pay now. Don't want to get in trouble right?"

"Ok, I'll be outside," Tsukasa reaffirmed and started walking toward the door. She only barely got outside and shut the door behind her when her cell phone rang, startling her just a little. She pulled it out and answered it once she saw it was Kagami.

"Hi sis, I didn't expect a call from you today," she said and walked a few steps away from the door.

"Hi Tsukasa," Kagami started on the other end, "how are things going over there?"

"Everything's fine, we just got done at the café. I don't think we had anything else planned today, so I think I'll be home soon."

"That's good. Mom and Dad were getting a little worried when they saw th-" here Kagami's line degraded to static for a few seconds before coming back, "-on the news."

"Um, I lost you for a second there. What was that?"

"Oh sorry, my cell's been doing that whenever I get a call. I think my phone's giving up the ghost. Anyway, Mom and Dad are a little worried because one of those people who had disappeared was found last night."

"Oh yeah, I read about that in the newspaper. It's really sad to hear isn't it? You don't have to worry about me, I'll be home in a little bit." Tsukasa glanced over as Konata walked out of the café and over to her.

"Ok, I'll see you when you get back home then," Kagami said. Tsukasa could almost picture the smile her twin had on right then. "Bye Tsukasa."

"Bye sis," Tsukasa said ending the call and putting her phone back in her pocket.

"Kagami calling to check on you?" Konata asked with a small smile.

"Yeah, I told her I'd be home soon," Tsukasa replied and looked around the street. "Unless there's something else we need to do?"

"Nah, I can't think of anything like that. I'll walk you home alright?" Tsukasa nodded and followed Konata down the street to the train station.

"So, what are we going to do about all of this?" Tsukasa asked quietly. Konata gave a quiet 'hm' and looked at Tsukasa. "Um, with the fog and the monsters."

"Honestly, I don't know," Konata said with a sad sigh, "there's no way to control that place in any way. The best I can give is to just wait and see what happens."

"I guess you're right," Tsukasa said and rubbed her cheek a little, "but what do we do if someone else disappears?"

"This isn't like P**sona Tsukasa. We're in just as much danger as anyone else that goes in there, so we can't really do anything. It sucks but it's the truth." Konata looked at Tsukasa and felt a pang of guilt at her depressed look. "If it makes you feel better, I don't think there were many people in there to begin with. That man, Mai and Miki, and some café worker are all I know for sure."

"So… there's just one other person besides us?" Tsukasa asked.

"The odds aren't good, but it's possible." Konata sighed and ran a hand down her face as she said, "Man, this really is a depressing topic. Why don't we do as I said and wait to see what happens." Tsukasa nodded and the two friends spent the rest of the trip in silence. They only broke it much later on the train when they reached Tsukasa's stop.

"I think I can make it the rest of the way on my own," Tsukasa told Konata as she stood up from her seat. "Thanks for today Konata, it was nice getting to spend time with you, even if it was about all of that."

"Yeah, it was," Konata said with a smile, "are you sure you don't want me to walk with you?"

"I'll be fine, but thanks." The train slowed down and jerked to a stop at the station and Tsukasa started walking to the doors with some other passengers. Just as she got off Konata said one last thing to her.

"Tell Kagami I said hi ok?"

Tsukasa nodded in reply and waved at Konata as she walked away from the train. Konata returned it as the doors closed and the train moved on with its route. After quietly taking a deep breath Konata sat down and tried to enjoy the rest of the ride to her stop. Easier said than done, as she would put it.

* * *

><p>It was later that night in the Hiiragi household that Kagami found herself done with her weekend homework and browsing through one of her books. Despite her small misgivings earlier the day had gone without so much as a hint of trouble, which she was definitely glad for.<p>

'_Konata's weird paranoia is getting to me a little,'_ Kagami thought and shook her head slightly at the thought of her otaku friend, _'but there has been a lot of weird things happening lately. Maybe she has the right idea for once?'_ Kagami tilted her head over to check her clock and sighed when she saw just how late it was.

"I guess I'm done with this for the night," she whispered and set her book aside, "I'll get ready for bed as soon as Tsukasa is out of the bath." With that in mind Kagami sat up on her bed and stretched her arms just as she heard an electronic chirping in her room. She soon found the source of the noise on her desk vibrating slightly along with the tunes. "My cell phone? Who could be calling this late at night?" Kagami wondered and moved over to pick up the phone, not at all surprised at who the caller ID said.

"Konata, of course," Kagami whispered as she flipped her phone open and placed it next to her ear. "This is Kagami," she said clearly but only got static in response, "hello, are you there Konata?" Only more static in response, which led an irritated Kagami to give the device a light smack and ask, "Can you even hear me?"

"Yikes, I can hear you," Konata said over the other end, "you don't need to shout Kagamin!"

Kagami sighed and walked over to sit on her bed as she said, "Sorry about that, my phone's been acting weird all day. What's up Konata, it's pretty late to call me."

"Nothing really, I just wanted to talk for a minute," Konata said.

'_She sound really tired,'_ Kagami thought and scratched at her chin, _'she must have overdone it on a game or something.'_ "Well, I was going to get ready for bed in a minute, but I can spare some time for you. So what's on your mind?"

"Oh, this and that, you know how it goes." Konata was quiet for a while before she asked, "Hey, are you free after school tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?" Kagami asked and thought for a moment. _'I don't think I have anything school related and I'm not planning on going shopping. So…'_ "Yeah, I'm free tomorrow."

"Good, don't make any plans ok? There's something I want to talk to you about, something important."

"O-ok, what is it?"

"I'd rather not say over the phone. It's… kind of personal. I'll see you at school tomorrow Kagami."

"Alright then, but don't forget about that homework ok?"

"Yeah yeah, I got it. Bye." With those last words the line went dead and Kagami shut her phone and placed it on her bed.

'_That was odd. What could be so important for her to talk about?'_ Kagami couldn't think on it for much longer as someone knocked on her door and opened it slightly.

"The bath is ready if you need it," Tsukasa said.

"Oh, thanks Tsukasa," Kagami said with a smile.

"No problem sis." Tsukasa closed the door with her own smile and left Kagami alone with her thoughts for a few more moments.

'_Tomorrow huh? Alright, we'll see what you want to talk about tomorrow Konata.'_

* * *

><p>The next morning Kagami and Tsukasa had made their way to school with little difficulty as always. It didn't take much longer for them to hear a familiar "Hey guys," from behind them.<p>

"Hey Konata," Kagami said as she and Tsukasa waved at Konata. Konata waved back and yawned slightly.

"Well, time for another day of school huh guys?"

"You look tired. Let me guess, you stayed up late playing games right?"

"Of course, how could I resist?" That smile of hers really irritated Kagami, even more so than that she outright admitted it.

"I'll never understand how you do that. Whatever you do in the future is going to be a sight to behold." Konata gave her a quick annoyed look while Tsukasa laughed nervously. Suddenly Kagami remembered last night and said, "Oh yeah, there was actually something I wanted to talk to you about Konata."

"Really? Ok, I'm listening."

Kagami quickly checked to make sure she actually was before saying, "I think I might actually be busy after school today. I totally forgot about some errands I have to run, so sorry."

"Oh, well thanks for telling me Kagami, but where did that come from?" Kagami gave Konata a confused look only to see it returned in kind.

"What do you mean? You were the one who brought it up when you called last night!"

"Last night?" Konata asked and glanced at Tsukasa, who shrugged. "I hate to break it to you Kagami, but I didn't call you last night."

"Wha- what do you mean by that?! Of course you did, I talked to you!" _'Is she trying to pull some kind of prank on me? Because if she is it's pissing me off.'_

"It must have been someone else then, because I didn't call you last night."

"No, it was definitely you. Hold on." Kagami reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone and, after a few seconds pulled up her call history. "See, right there at 8:10 last night your house called my phone." Everyone gathered around to verify what she said and Konata looked more confused than ever.

"That's… really weird," she said after a minute and tapped her forehead, "I don't know what to tell you Kagami. I went grocery shopping at eight and didn't get back for about fifteen minutes. I couldn't have made that call because I wasn't even home."

"Are you serious?" Kagami asked and got a nod in response. She looked down at her phone, which hadn't changed at all, and just stared at it. "What the hell?"

"Maybe you got a call from a ghost," Konata suddenly said jokingly and wiggled her fingers at Kagami, "You know, like that one Tak**hi M**ke film"

"OH SHUT UP KONATA!" Kagami put her phone away and quickened her pace to the school with Konata and Tsukasa following, the former smiling happily.

* * *

><p>The next few days passed without much incident. Nothing odd had happened to either Konata or Tsukasa with the fog and Kagami hadn't gotten any more strange calls. The news was still all over the disappearances, along with constant reminders about the current victims, but nothing more has come from it. For all intents and purposes life seemed to be returning to normal, or at least as normal as it can get with a metaphorical sword hanging over you.<p>

"Um, are you in there sis?" Kagami looked back at her door so she could see Tsukasa open the door with a book in hand. "I think I need some help on some homework."

"Again? You've been having a lot of problems in school lately haven't you?" Kagami asked with a small smile and gestured for her to come in.

Tsukasa laughed nervously and said, "I've been focusing on a lot of other things I guess?" and walked into the room, closing the door behind her as she went. "I'm a little stuck on today's history assignment."

"Ok, get set at the table and I'll be right there." Tsukasa nodded and sat down at the table in the middle of the room while Kagami gathered some materials at her work desk. Just as she was about to stand up her cell phone rang, which surprised the both twins, and she answered it before the third rang. "Hello?"

"Seven days," said a raspy voice on the other end.

"Seven days," Kagami returned less than amused.

"Seven days."

"Very funny Konata, and I already told you that call was not like that M**ke film."

"Yeah I know, but when am I ever going to be able to say that?" Konata asked in her normal tone of voice and laughed happily. "Anyway, what's up Kagami?"

"Nothing important," Kagami answered standing from her work desk and moving over to the table Tsukasa was sitting at. Kagami glanced up to see Tsukasa staring blankly at her as she said, "I'm just doing homework with Tsukasa."

"Ah, homework. It's such a drag you know? I'd much rather play than do that right now."

'_She's egging a response!'_ Kagami thought angrily and decided not to give the expected response. "Nice try Konata. So is there a reason you called besides idle chitchat?"

"Not really, it's not like I have anything to do right now," was Konata's reply along with some rustling.

'_She doesn't even have the decency to pout after I saw through her ploy like that?!'_

"Ugh, the weather is so terrible out there. Way to put a damper on an already terrible mood huh?"

"You can find any excuse to not do anything can you? Though I do have to agree with you there; I checked outside a while ago and it looked like some fog was rolling in." There was no response on Konata's end other than a sudden clatter as, across the city in her room, Konata froze in horror and dropped the phone. Kagami gave a confused, "Hello? Konata are you still there?" and looked at Tsukasa staring at her with wide, fearful eyes. Apparently Konata regained control of herself since Kagami heard her pick the phone up and take a deep breath.

"Kagami, did you just say fog?" Konata asked quietly, like she was afraid someone would hear her.

"Yeah, what's so bad about it? I know you and Tsukasa have been talking about it a lot, but why-?"

"Kagami, we've been talking about it because people start seeing fog just before they disappear!"

"…Really?" Kagami asked in slight disbelief. She looked at Tsukasa who simply nodded and put on her most serious face. "So what, you think I'm gonna vanish next because I saw a little fog?"

"Yes." Kagami actually flinched a little at how serious Konata sounded. It just sounded… wrong coming from her. "Please Kagami, this is a seriously bad thing. Just this one time please trust me on this." Kagami almost wanted to shoot down Konata's worries, but the look on her twin's face stopped her cold. She sighed a little and decided to just go with it.

"Alright, assuming what you're saying is true, how long does this usually take? You know, to disappear."

"It took less than a day for me and a few days for Tsukasa. So it'll happen soon, but I don't know exactly when."

"Ok, so what?"

"So, I'm going to stick with you and keep an eye on you."

"What?! No, that's going too far Konata!"

"Um, what's happening?" Tsukasa asked quietly, but was ignored.

"You're not going to argue your way out of this Kagami, my mind is set. I'll see you tomorrow Kagami." Before Kagami could protest Konata hung up. Kagami stared at her cell phone for a moment before closing it, setting it on the table, and burying her head in her hands with a sigh.

"A-are you ok sis?" Tsukasa asked and reached over the table to pat her sister's arm gently.

"Yeah… I'll be alright," Kagami answered and lowered her hands onto the table, "Konata just chooses the weirdest things to get enthusiastic about. I hope this turns out to be nothing so she'll calm down a little."

"I hope so too." Tsukasa looked down at her homework and giggled a little and asked, "So, can we skip the homework tonight?"

"Tsukasa, you're going to get yelled at if you don't finish it. Come on, I'll help you out now."

'_Wow, she's right back to normal! I was really worried when I first saw the fog. Maybe it's a way for her to cope?'_

* * *

><p>And so it was that the next few days for Kagami were spent in the company of both Konata at and after school and Tsukasa at home. Honestly it wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for all the questions Konata had asked.<p>

"_Do you still see the fog? How thick is it? If it gets any thicker you have to let me or Tsukasa know immediately ok?"_ It had gotten old very fast, but Kagami put up with it. After all, it wasn't like she didn't spend a lot of time with Konata before all of this. And, just like Konata said, Kagami did notice a difference in the fog after a day or two. It had only gotten a little thicker, but that was enough to send a chill down Konata's spine when she told her.

By the time Saturday came Kagami had written the whole experience off as one of those weird oddities that would pass eventually. Unfortunately that morning's newspaper would prove to have just the dose of reality that she needed.

* * *

><p><em>Disappearing case claims new victim.<em>

_Late last night the body of Mai Hiigase, a high schooler that had vanished along with a friend nine days ago, was found in a field near her home. While details of her death are under investigation, the cause is generalized once again as 'violent.' The whereabouts of her friend, Ms. Mikisa Hinata, are still unknown at this time._

* * *

><p>"Ok, I can understand why you're worried about this," Kagami later told Konata at lunch.<p>

"It's really sad when this kind of thing happens," Konata replied silently, her lunch sitting uneaten in front of her, "she was about our age wasn't she?"

"They are still looking for her friend aren't they?" Miyuki asked hopefully, "So there's still a chance she'll be found safe."

"You do have a point Miyuki. Still, it's hard to believe this kind of thing can happen." For a second Kagami was curious about how Konata was acting, but put it aside for the moment and focused on her lunch. Thankfully the topic afterwards drifted away to something else for the rest of the lunch period and the rest of the day and night passed without any more trouble.

* * *

><p>Since the next day was a day off Konata decided to drag the twins around for the day. Konata met them on the train station closest to their house and continued riding the train from there.<p>

"I'm actually surprised that Tsukasa managed to talk you into this Kagami," Konata said poking Kagami lightly in the arm.

"Please don't let your paranoia get the better of you," Kagami said and brushed Konata away from her, "You're acting like I would have refused if I had a chance." Konata's only response was a small smile.

"I'm glad you decided to come with us Kagami," Tsukasa said and glanced out of the window at the passing scenery. "It's been a little while since the three of us have done something together hasn't it? We've all been really busy lately."

"Tell me about it, it's so good to take a break," Konata said and stretched out a little.

"But you always- oh forget it, it's the same story every time."

"So, um, what do we all want to do?" Tsukasa asked in an attempt to change the subject.

"As long as we don't spend the whole day shopping for manga, I don't really care."

"In that case, I have the best idea!" Konata said and stood up just as the train pulled to a stop and left with Kagami and Tsukasa following. The twins glanced at each other as they walked along and, not surprisingly, wound up at an arcade.

"Really, an arcade is the first thing you wanted to do?" Kagami asked and shot a mild irritated look at Konata.

"Of course, but after this you can choose what we do Kagamin!" Konata chuckled a little and walked into the arcade while saying "I wonder if they still have that one arcade game here?" Kagami blinked a couple of times and looked over at Tsukasa who laughed happily.

"It's good to see her all lively and excited again, isn't it?" Tsukasa asked and followed Konata inside. Kagami, for her part, sighed a little and silently agreed with her.

'_She still wears me out though,'_ she thought and walked inside too, not even sparing a second glance at the fog rolling in.

* * *

><p>"Hey, did anyone else know there was a café here?" Kagami asked pointing across the street, "We can have lunch there."<p>

"Yeah but cafés are one in a dozen," Konata said with a small pout.

"You said I can choose what we do next, didn't you? Besides what's wrong with going there?"

"Oh nothing, I just wanted to point that out. I'm not too hungry though, so I probably won't eat much."

"I'll decide what to have when we get inside," Tsukasa said and scratched her cheek lightly. "So don't worry about me ok sis?"

"Alright Tsukasa. Well, let's hurry up and get in then, I'm starving." Kagami adjusted her purse quickly and led the group across the street and into the café. They were quickly seated, had their orders placed, and gotten lost in conversation.

"And it's so stinky too. I wonder why?" Tsukasa asked about five minutes into the meal.

"Isn't it to drive away animals that might eat it?" Konata replied with a drink of coffee.

"I suppose so. Flowers can be interesting when they want to be." Kagami shook her head a little at where the conversation had gone.

'_What could I do? It's not like we've had weirder conversations going,'_ Kagami thought and stood up from the table. "I have to go to the bathroom, so I'll be back in a bit guys."

"Ok Kagami," Konata said with a wave, "don't take too long ok?" Kagami rolled her eyes and nodded before she walked to the bathroom. Tsukasa watched her disappear into the bathroom and looked at Konata with some worry.

"Um, should we go after her and make sure she'll be ok?" she asked.

"Everybody needs some privacy Tsukasa," Konata said and glanced at the bathroom doors, "but I'll go check on her if she takes too long." Tsukasa nodded and turned to look at the door.

In the bathroom, Kagami was in the middle of washing her hands and trying to ignore the headache that had started up out of nowhere. That was mostly the reason she came in here and it was a bad one, almost like something was trying to claw its way out of her head.

'_Ugh, this sucks,'_ she thought as she rubbed her forehead. Unfortunately the pain didn't go away. In fact it seemed to be getting worse. Kagami managed to turn the water off and look up at the mirror, though she recoiled in shock at what she saw.

In the mirror was her, completely normal, with the bathroom behind her looking like it was burning away. The white walls gave way to dark red and the stalls were rusted over, though when Kagami looked behind her the room was still the same it was when she got in. Suddenly her headache worsened and she heard this loud ringing in her ears. The strength in her knees gave way and she collapsed against the sink she was using, completely unable to move.

'_What the hell is happening?'_

* * *

><p>"Late again," a girl told herself as she checked her watch for what must have been the tenth time. After rocking back into her chair she picked up her coffee and took a quick drink. "The one time I come early and she turns up late. Story of my life huh?" She chuckled lightly and set the cup down and looked out of a nearby window at the thick fog.<p>

"I hope she gets here soon."

* * *

><p><strong>Well, one very long while and a week of hardcore writing later and this is done! I suck at coming up with names, as you can probably see, but I'd rather take a hit there than on bad writing.<strong>

**Once again, any comments good or bad are appreciated.**


	14. Fog Shopping DIstrict pt 1

It took about a minute or so for the pain to lighten enough for Kagami to stand up straight. She shook her head a little and started rubbing her forehead with two fingers. The pain soon dissipated entirely and Kagami sighed a little and looked into the mirror, the scene reflected in it now back to normal.

"What was that?" She asked herself and shook her head a little and stood up straight. "Oh well, I spent too long in here. Konata and Tsukasa are probably wondering where I went." After quickly checking her reflection Kagami moved back to the door when she realized she couldn't hear anything outside. The café they were in was pretty full when she entered and Kagami pushed open the door to see it was now almost empty. No customers, no staff, there weren't even pedestrians outside. The only other person she could see was a black haired girl casually drinking at a table looking away from Kagami.

With no other options apparent Kagami walked out of the bathroom and carefully approached the girl, who didn't seem to notice her footsteps. Kagami got about halfway to her when she said, "Hello?" The girl perked up immediately and turned to look at Kagami with a smile.

"There you are Kagamin. You had me worried for a second there," she said and waved at Kagami.

"K-Konata?!" Kagami nearly shouted and froze in place.

"Who else would I be?" Konata asked and stood up from the table. Kagami took in how Konata looked now that she could see her fully; her hair was exactly the same, length and all, except it was jet black. She now wore glasses and her eyes seemed… colder somehow, at least to Kagami. She was also dressed differently, wearing a black sweat shirt with a red shirt underneath and a gray skirt, although her shoes were the same as before. Konata gave Kagami a weird look and leaned closer to her.

"What's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost just now." Kagami snapped out of her shock and shook her head while pinching her forehead.

"I-it's nothing, I just had a… weird experience in the bathroom," Kagami said and looked Konata in the eyes. Konata nodded and leaned away from Kagami and crossed her arms. _'What the heck is going on? Just stay calm Kagami, things will make sense soon enough.'_

"That's probably when the fog settled in fully for you," she said and tapped her forehead, "I get bad headaches when that happens too." Konata then turned back and walked back to the table and picked up her drink. Kagami shook her head and followed her.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, "What is going on? And where is everybody? This is just fog isn't it?"

"You haven't figured it out?" Konata asked and pointed with her thumb at the front windows of the café, showing the thick fog rolling outside, "That isn't ordinary fog. There are… things out there that nearly tore my throat out when I first met them." Konata then took a drink and made a small, angry motion at Kagami, "I told you that fog was bad news when you started seeing it, but did you listen? No, you had to play skeptic and make me tag along with you for days until it got bad!"

"Well I'm sorry!" Kagami yelled back angrily, "I'm sorry I didn't believe your insane story about fog and possessed game discs! Do you realize how _insane_ that sounds without actually experiencing it?!" Despite Kagami's anger, Konata hardly reacted to the shouting. Instead she quickly finished the drink in her hand and set the cup down on the table before shoving her hands in the pockets of her sweater.

"Well, none of that matters right now," she said with a small shrug, "right now we should focus on living long enough to get out of this." Kagami took a few deep breaths and, once she was calmed down a little, nodded in agreement and looked Konata in the eyes.

"Sorry, you're right," she said and closed her eyes in thought, "but where do we even start?" Before Konata could answer, both girls were startled by a loud chirping noise. It took Kagami a minute to realize that the noise was her phone and she pulled it out of her pocket and checked the caller ID. "Unknown number?"

"You should probably answer that," Konata said pointing at the phone, "it might be important."

"Did you get a call like this?" Kagami asked and flipped her phone open and held it to her ear.

"Yup," Konata replied and waited for Kagami to finish the call. Kagami waited a second for someone to talk before she finally spoke up.

"Hello?" she asked and turned away from Konata. It took a few more seconds before she got a response.

"You're new," a male voice said on the other end, "what's your name?"

"Kagami Hiiragi. Why does that matter?" Kagami glanced back at Konata who raised an eyebrow.

"Tsukasa Hiiragi is your younger twin right?" the voice asked.

"Y-yes, how do you know her?"

"I talked with her. My advice to you, do whatever Konata says. She'll know where to go." The voice was silent for a moment before it said quietly, "This is an interesting pattern," before the line went dead.

"Wait, hold on! How do you know Tsukasa?!" Kagami screamed before shutting the phone and groaning in frustration. Kagami then put the phone back in her pocket and turned back to Konata and said, "I hate that guy. He didn't tell me a thing aside from saying I should do what you say."

"I know Kagamin, whoever that is really grates on your nerves but he does give good advice." Konata walked over to the window and tried to look outside while Kagami absorbed what she said.

"So, what did he tell you?" Kagami asked and walked over to the window. Konata looked at Kagami and shook her head slightly.

"Nothing that helps me in the long run. It made sense at the time, but when I got out I never heard from him again, except when he's talking to other people."

"Why? What is he?" Konata simply shrugged and looked back at Kagami.

"I have no idea," she said pacing away from the window, "and after everything I've seen here I'm not even sure he's human. So did he tell you anything else?"

"No, just to follow you."

"Dammit. Alright, I guess we wander then." Konata adjusted her glasses and scratched her cheek in thought and said, "We're not too far from the train station, so I think we should make that our destination. From there, wherever it takes us."

"Wait, what do you mean 'wherever it takes us'?" _'Dammit, she's being too cryptic for her own good.'_

"I meant what I said. It's like the trains have a mind of their own here, I can't really describe it. Before any of that though, there's a couple of places we need to go to."

"Wait, why should we stop anywhere if it's as dangerous as everyone keeps saying?" Kagami asked with some annoyance, "Shouldn't we just go right there?"

"I wish we could, but that's not going to happen." Konata gave Kagami a small glare and adjusted her glasses again. "First of all, there's a pharmacy we passed not too far from this café. It's just a block or two at most, so it shouldn't be that far of a run."

"Hold on, why a pharmacy?"

"Well _I_ need to go there because I need to get some medicine. You know, those ones I take all the time?"

'_The hell is she talking about? Oh this is confusing. Better just go with it for now,'_ Kagami thought before answering out loud, "Yeah, I remember those. I don't think you ever told me the name of them though."

"I guess I didn't, but you don't have to worry about that Kagami. Besides we might get lucky and find a first aid kit or something while we're there, which should be more suited for you. After that, there's a police station just down the street from the train station."

"Ok, I understand why we would want to go there, but I haven't seen anyone here aside from you. Would there be any police officers?"

"It's not cops I'm looking for Kagami."

"Not cops? Then what are you…?" Kagami got distracted when she noticed Konata's eyes were staring behind her. Very slowly, Kagami turned around to see someone she hadn't expected. "I-is that Misao?"

True enough, wandering outside the window of the café was a girl in a Ryouou high school uniform, the front of which was colored a slight red, and the short brown hair identified her as Kagami's classmate. Kagami couldn't see her face, but what she did see was enough to worry her and cause her to start for the door.

"Kagami don't!" Kagami stopped and looked back at the black haired girl who was giving her a very serious look. "I know what you're thinking, and I'm telling you right now that that _can't_ be Misao."

"And how would you know that?!" Kagami said pointing at the figure outside, "if that is Misao then she's hurt and might need help!"

"Kagami, you don't know how this place works." Konata walked over to Kagami and placed a hand on her shoulder as she said, "Just trust me, it would be best if we just got out of here with that seeing us."

"That?!" Kagami smacked Konata's hand off of her, shocking the smaller girl, and continued with, "I know you always hated Misao since you met her, but for you to say…" Kagami froze at what she said, causing her to shake a little as she looked Konata over. "W-why did I say that?"

"Kagami…?" Konata took a second to look at the figure wandering outside before seeing Kagami point a finger at her.

"I… y-you don't really care about her. But I know you hate her, you got into a fight with her when I introduced you two!" Kagami's eyes widened a little before shutting tight as she sank to her knees with her hands digging into her hair. "But then there's the other time I introduced you two and you just said, 'oh this is your friend? What's up?' T-that can't be right though!"

"Kagami, keep your voice down a little!" Konata insisted looking outside to see the girl stopped and looking around a little.

"You hate her, but the _other_ you didn't care at all!"

"Other…? Kagami, you've gotta calm down a little!"

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" Kagami shouted out loud, which caused the monster outside to snap its head towards the sound.

"Oh now you've done it!" Konata yelled and started to reach for the back of her skirt as the Misao thing shrieked loudly and burst through the window. Both Kagami and Konata let out a small yell at the sudden action and shielded their eyes from the spraying glass. Afterwards Kagami got her first real look at what had been outside and she froze in terror at the gritted teeth and dark eyes. When it saw her it shrieked again and lunged at her. Kagami only just barely managed to get her arms up just as the monster hit her and pinned her to the ground, leaving Kagami barely holding it up as it gnashed and thrashed against her.

"W-what is this thing?!" Kagami yelled with her eyes firmly fixed on the teeth half a foot away from her. Her ears were filled with this loud noise, though Kagami could hardly think of where it could be coming from. Then she noticed that her arms were starting to feel numb and it was much harder to keep it away from her.

"Son of a…!" was all Kagami could hear from Konata over the monster's roars. Then she saw Konata kick the monster in the face, which managed to knock it off of Kagami. Once she realized she was free Kagami sat up and watched as the monster tumbled for a second before looking at her and growling a little.

Then a loud bang sounded next to her, causing Kagami to flinch and cover her head, and the left side of the monster's face blew out into red mist as it fell into its back. That… thing that looked like Misao twitched on the floor as Kagami looked over at Konata and saw the reason for the sudden noise.

"I-is that a gun?!" Kagami said and scooted away from Konata, the handgun still trained on the monster even as she caught her breath. The black haired girl stole a quick glance at Kagami, who had backed into a wall, and quickly walked over to the creature and gave it a quick stomp. The monster's twitches stopped and it lay motionless on the floor with a small pool of blood spreading from its head.

"Yes," Konata said lowering the gun, "it is a gun." Konata then turned and took a step toward Kagami as she asked, "Are you hurt?"

"Stay away from me!" Kagami yelled, which caused Konata to back off slightly and put her hands up defensively. Almost immediately Konata realized what the problem was and started to sidestep to a nearby table and set the pistol on it.

"It's ok Kagami, I'm putting the gun down see?" Once Konata had stepped away from the table and saw Kagami nod slightly she lowered her hands and asked, "Are you hurt?" Kagami looked over her arms a little before shaking her head.

"I-I think I'm ok," Kagami said with a noticeable shake in her voice and looked at the dead monster. "What is that thing? It… I-I don't…"

"I told you there were things out in the fog Kagami," Konata said and walked over to Kagami. The taller girl didn't react as Konata knelt down in front of her and turned her face toward her with her hand. "Kagami, you do know who I am right?"

"W-what?"

"Who am I Kagami?" Although Kagami was taken aback by the question, those gray eyes of Konata's were full of concern for her.

"Y-you're Konata, aren't you?" Konata sighed in relief and withdrew her hand from Kagami.

"Yeah, so you know I wouldn't hurt you right?" Kagami nodded silently and took a couple of breaths to calm herself until she heard something roar in the distance. Both girls looked outside and shared a worried look. "That's not good. Listen Kagami, it's not safe here, so we have to go now. Do you need help getting around?"

"No, I don't think so," Kagami answered and, after making sure her legs were alright, got to her feet. She shook her arms out a little, glad that that feeling of numbness was almost completely gone now, and her eyes once again fell on the pistol on the table. "Where did you get that thing anyway?" she asked.

"The gun? I found it in an apartment building not too long ago," Konata answered. She then walked over to it, picked it up, and started turning it over. "The um… old owner didn't need it anymore."

"I see," Kagami replied and chose to ignore the insinuation in her friend's statement, "So that's why we need to go to the police station?"

"Yeah, a gun's useless without bullets after all." Konata looked at Kagami and followed her eyes down to the monster on the floor. "We… better get going before more of them show up."

"R-right," Kagami said and rubbed her forehead slightly, "You better lead the way. My head is killing me right now."

"Alright," Konata said with a nod and lead Kagami to the front door. She placed her free hand on the handle before looking back at Kagami with a mischievous grin and said, "Do you need me to hold your hand Kagami?"

"Oh shut up!" Kagami shouted, only to get a small laugh from Konata as she pushed the door open and walked outside with Kagami not too far behind.

Outside in the fog it was way too quiet for Kagami. The only sounds she could hear were her and Konata's footsteps, those distant roars, and her own breathing as she looked around. Most of the stores around her were empty despite looking open for business and the ones she couldn't see in were because they were boarded up. Cars lined the sides of the street and once they passed one sitting in the middle of the road.

'_Was that…?'_ Kagami thought when she saw that specific car's door was open and there was something leading away from it. _'No, it must be my imagination.'_ "So… is this what it was like the other times too?" she asked out loud.

"Pretty much yeah," Konata answered and peeked around a corner and sighed. "Crap, we're not going this way." Kagami joined Konata in looking over and saw that the street was gone and she couldn't tell how far away it was from the thick fog.

"What the heck? How is…?" Kagami started before trailing off into a tired sigh, "Just tell me we're close to that pharmacy Konata and I'll try to ignore that."

"That depends on your definition of 'close'," Konata said and motioned to the crumbled street with the handgun, "that street would have taken us right where we need to go. Honestly, I should have seen this coming."

"Just perfect," Kagami said angrily just as another shot of pain tore into her head. She leaned against the nearest wall and rubbed her forehead to dull the ache. "Ugh, this is a horrible migraine."

"Is it so bad that you can't walk?" Konata asked leaning toward Kagami looking very concerned.

"No, it's just there you know?" Kagami groaned a little and pushed off of the building, glad that Konata was giving her some space. "It's not as bad right now, so I think I'm ok."

"Alright, if you say so Kagami," Konata said looking around. "I don't think we have much of a choice other than look around for a shortcut or something." The two girls froze when they heard a loud shriek maybe a block away, which was answered by almost ten more similar calls.

"I suppose so. I will be fine Konata, just… don't worry." The smaller girl nodded and started walking down the street with a small wave at Kagami. Kagami managed to sluggishly follow, though her thoughts were fully on Konata.

'_Was she… always like this?'_ Kagami thought, _'What am I thinking? It's the dumbest thing ever, but I can't stop thinking about that other girl.'_ Kagami shook her head and decided, _'I need to stay calm and sort these things out when I can.'_

"Hey, there's an alley here!" Konata spoke up suddenly. Kagami stopped next to her friend and looked at the alley she mentioned. Konata coughed a couple of times before saying, "it looks pretty intact too."

"Ok, after you then," Kagami replied quietly. Konata gave Kagami a quick look before slowly walking down the alley. Kagami shook her head a little and waited for Konata to wave her forward before walking into the alley. "It's longer than I thought it'd be," Kagami commented quietly.

"It probably _is_ longer than it should be," Konata whispered back. After about a minute they had gotten far enough into the alley to see the opening on the other side, along with the dark silhouette of something. "Get to the side, get to the side!" Konata told Kagami and pushed her against the wall. Kagami watched the smaller girl stifle a cough before looking at whatever was in front of them.

Once her eyes adjusted to the distance, Kagami froze in surprise when she saw the figure had a very familiar hair style: hers, or at least something close to hers. Both girls watched for a long while the figure swayed back and forth holding its head in its hands, the sound of pained groans filling the alley, until it slowly shuffled away from the entrance.

Konata let out a breath and whispered, "That was close," and pushed away from the wall. She looked over at Kagami, who gave a quiet nod, and the two resumed their walk to the end of the alley. They checked to see if there was anything on the street when Kagami saw that part of the wall next to her had been burned away.

"Some kind of acid?" Kagami whispered to herself and leaned closer to the bit of wall that had caught her attention. "Hey Konata," Kagami started and turned around to see Konata was gone. Kagami's nerves immediately went on edge as she looked around the fog filled streets for her black haired friend.

"Hey Kagami." The twin tailed girl jumped and looked back at Konata smiling widely at her. "You know, I thought I was supposed to be the one with the short attention span Kagamin."

"Oh shut up Konata," Kagami said with her cheeks turning red slightly and pointed at the wall, "I was just wondering why this wall was burned away." Konata glanced at the wall and leaned closer to inspect it, but shook her head after a moment.

"We'll figure that out later Kagami. We're close to the pharmacy, so I'd appreciate it if you could hurry."

"You're the one holding us up!" Kagami shouted and walked past Konata, very annoyed that the otaku only reacted by smiling more. Konata picked up her pace until she was right next to Kagami, the smile having dropped in favor for her usual serious demeanor. After a few minutes of walking they had found the street they were trying to get to and Konata started looking around nervously.

"I don't like this," she said nervously shifting the pistol in her hand, "this is too easy."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Kagami asked and looked around too. "The less we have to deal with those things, the better right?"

"Calm before the storm Kagami. Every other time I didn't run into those smaller things, a _bigger_ thing came along and tried to eat me or put a cleaver in my head. Let's hurry up and get inside before something happens." Konata turned away from Kagami and started crossing the street, not even waiting as Kagami stared after her friend until she followed.

* * *

><p>The door to the pharmacy was thankfully unlocked and Konata and Kagami entered without much hesitation. The first thing that Kagami saw once inside was a set of chairs which she immediately went towards and sat in one of them. Once she was settled she held her head in her hands as the headache came back.<p>

"Are they getting bad again?" Konata asked looking at Kagami as she made her way to the counter. Kagami could only nod silently and glance up as Konata hopped over the counter and set the pistol on it. "Well go ahead and rest for a minute, I won't take long." Konata then reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper, which she unfolded and read to herself.

Here Kagami looked away and started rubbing her forehead to try and dull the headache. _'Why is this hurting so much?'_ she thought to herself, _'I've never had trouble with headaches before. And then there's…'_

"Hey Kagami, do you mind if I ask you something?" Konata suddenly asked, sparing a glance at Kagami when she set a bottle of pills on the counter. Kagami replied with a small affirmative noise, so Konata continued. "It's… about what you said earlier, that 'other me' stuff." Kagami shot up and stared at Konata who concluded, "What exactly did you mean by that?"

"I… I'm not really sure," Kagami answered, which drew a questioning look from Konata, "it's just that I somewhat remember a girl like you."

"Just like me?" Konata asked motioning at Kagami with another pill bottle before she opened it and downed one of the pills. "Except with blue hair and no glasses, right?"

"Y-yeah!" Kagami stood up and quickly made her way over to the counter and leaned toward Konata. "How did you guess that?"

"You're sister told me the same thing back when she vanished. She was very insistent that I was this other girl though." Konata swallowed down a pill from the other bottle and crossed her arms in thought. "I wonder what this all means. Any ideas Kagami?"

"No idea," Kagami replied and rubbed her forehead again, "it's like I remember her, but I also remember you too. Do you get what I'm saying?"

"Kind of. I wonder if it's the same thing that happened to Tsukasa? Your headache's should have gone away by now if it was just from you transitioning over to here, so maybe that is part of it too."

"Maybe," Kagami said and thought to herself, _'But that seems a little too… easy? It feels more like rationalizing than anything, but I don't know what else to think.'_

"Well, I guess we can't actually do anything about that girl unless we actually meet her. As for your headaches…" Konata looked around for a second before picking up a white bottle and handed it to Kagami. "Take a couple of those and hopefully it'll keep you focused." Kagami looked at the bottle and gave Konata a flat look. "Don't give me that look, it's just aspirin."

Kagami let out a small breath and quickly opened the aspirin bottle and swallowed two capsules. With them downed she put the bottle down and looked at Konata, who was back searching through the shelves for something. Without much else to do Kagami pulled out her cell phone and quietly browsed through the menus. She didn't have a signal of any kind, so she doubted that a call could get through. Then she happened to come across the album for the pictures she took with her phone and soon enough found another thing wrong with her phone.

'_First my calls start dropping and now my photos are getting corrupted?'_ Kagami thought as she looked through the photos. The odd thing was that only some photos were corrupted while others were left untouched, with no discernible pattern to it. After a moment Kagami let out an irritated sigh and put her phone away thinking, _'Why is it screwing up so suddenly now? I hope it's temporary, I don't want to replace it so soon.'_

"Crap, they don't have that here," Konata said suddenly. Kagami looked back to find her friend absently counting her fingers as she said, "I took some of that this morning, so I should be fine for now. I hope I'm not screwing that up." Konata nodded to herself and walked back to the counter, giving Kagami a look as she hopped over it. "Alright Kagami, I think we're done here," she said grabbing the pistol, "how's your headache?"

"Better," Kagami replied, pressing a hand against her forehead, "Let's go. All this silence is starting to get to me."

Konata was about to say something when a dull thunk sounded from the front. Both girls looked and took a step back when they saw a monster that looked like Kagami leaning against the glass. Immediately Kagami saw something wrong with it, with its skin looking a very unhealthy grayish and what looked like _very_ old sores covering the skin that she could see.

"Where the hell did that thing come from?" Konata asked shifting to a loose shooting position and let out a small breath. The monster turned its head up, its mouth slightly open with only the very tip of its teeth showing through, and started to heave a little.

"That doesn't look good," Kagami whispered and glanced at Konata as she leveled the pistol to the monster's head. When she did so the monster vomited on the window and Kagami was surprised when the liquid burned through the glass with a horrific sizzling. The monster started to reach inside, but that was as far as it got before Konata regained her senses and fired a shot at the creature. The shot landed square in the creature's chest, forcing it back outside and on the ground.

"We gotta run Kagami!" Konata shouted and ran for the front door. It took Kagami a second to react and she was racing after her friend just as she threw the front door open and darted left. When Kagami got outside she tripped when something grabbed her ankle. She looked back to see the monster holding onto her, its violet hair shielding its pitch black eyes, and it gave a very sick sounding moan as it crawled up to her. Kagami's leg started going numb and she started kicking the monster in a blind panic, somehow managing to land a solid enough kick to daze it into letting her go.

Kagami scrambled to her feet and ran in the direction Konata went to see her friend waiting for her. Once Kagami had caught up they both ran as fast as they could down the sidewalk and rounded the first corner they could. After everything that has happened, Kagami was completely turned around and hoped that Konata knew where they were going.

After almost minute of sprinting, Kagami could feel her lungs and legs burning from the exertion. Thankfully it looked like nothing had followed them, so they gradually slowed down to a stop. While Kagami was trying her hardest to catch her breath, Konata seemed only slightly winded.

'_What is with you?!'_ Kagami thought and shot Konata a small annoyed glance before sighing and shaking her head. _'Priorities Kagami. Konata has always been athletic like that, even with everything that's happened with her.'_ No sooner had the thought passed that her eyes widened at what she thought and the headache returned full force, forcing the twin tailed girl to collapse on her knees.

"Kagami!" Konata said as she kneeled in front of her friend and grabbed her shoulders. "What happened?"

"My head," Kagami barely got out and clutched her head as the pain nearly drove her to unconsciousness, "it just got… really bad… all of a sudden."

"This isn't normal Kagami," Konata stated as she put her handgun in one of her sweatshirt's pockets and slowly pulled Kagami to her feet, the taller girl leaning against her for support. "All of these frequent headaches, and especially as painful ones as you've been getting, it just can't be."

'_If it isn't, then what…?'_

"Just don't think too much Kagami, just focus on walking with me." Without much further say Konata started leading Kagami down the street. While she was a little unsteady at first, Kagami soon settled into a steady pace. Even then, the pain in her head remained and Kagami repeated one question over and over in her head.

'_Just what happened to Konata?'_

* * *

><p>Konata led Kagami along for a couple of blocks and the girl's headache hadn't relented in the meantime. Along the way Konata managed to wriggle the pistol back out and into her left hand, which saved their lives when they ran across a couple of those monsters. Deep down, Konata admitted to herself that she some small satisfaction with every shot that hit its mark.<p>

After a few more minutes of slow walking Konata could see the outline of the police building through the fog and quickened her pace until she was in front of it. Much to her surprise Kagami managed to get a hand on the door and pull on it, the door opening enough for the two girls to slip inside.

Much as expected, the foyer to the station was completely abandoned. Yet the girls could still pick up signs of life, such as a coffee cup that was still hot. Konata led Kagami over to one of the couches on the side and set her down on it, the twin tailed girl managing to sit upright on her own, and set the pistol down next to Kagami.

"Listen Kagami, I'm going to have to leave you here while I'm looking around here," Konata told Kagami, receiving a nod in reply before continuing. "I'm going to leave the gun in case one of those monsters tries to get here ok? There are only about eight bullets left in it, so be careful. I'll try not to take too long." When Konata got another nod she left Kagami's side and headed deeper into the police station.

With her headache dulled down to manageable levels, Kagami took one look at the black firearm next to her and reached out a hand to it before pulling it back and shaking her head. Without much else to do besides look around, Kagami pulled out her cell phone and pulled up the glitched pictures again. They hadn't changed since the last time she saw them.

'_What is going on with these?'_ Kagami thought as she went through the pictures. As she went through the pictures constantly switched between normal pictures and the weird glitched ones, and along the way Kagami noticed something about them.

Konata wasn't in any of the clear pictures.

Kagami shook her head and leaned back into the couch. _'That's ridiculous. Taking a picture of Konata glitches the photo? Why?'_ With another shake of her head Kagami focused on the phone and continued going through the photos until she found something odd.

One picture was of what looked like a family's shrine, and one that had just recently been visited if the bouquet of flowers was any indication. While the lettering on the shrine was a little blurred from the pixilation, Kagami thought she could make out the word 'Izumi'. Curious as to when she had taken this, Kagami quickly checked the date of the photo.

"August 20th? I wonder what this is all about. Maybe Konata will know." Kagami nodded in agreement to herself and shut her phone.

Then it started making a racket when it was halfway to her pocket. It was this weird static that put Kagami's nerves on edge and it kept getting louder.

'_Wait, I heard this before. Back at the café…'_ Realization hit her like a ton of bricks and Kagami's gaze soon found its way to the front windows and a new sound filled the air over the static. This weird, squeaking sound that Kagami instantly associated with rusty wheels came from outside the building. The source of the noise soon became known.

Kagami saw a moveable hospital gurney be pushed in front of the window, the sheets of which gave away the human shape underneath. Of whoever was underneath Kagami could only see a pale arm and dull, dark blue hair. Kagami held her breath and subconsciously reached for the pistol next to her, the air suddenly growing very still with this new arrival. She managed to get a good grip on the gun just as the lying figure's arm twitched and lifted towards her.

Then a loud *whump* sounded as something else suddenly shot into view and pressed against the window. Kagami shrieked and fell off the couch, somehow not managing to shoot herself in the process, and raised the gun at _whatever_ that was. The first thing she noticed about this new arrival was its jet black sweatshirt, the hood of which was pulled up to completely hide its face as it glanced around inside. The only thing she actually saw of its face was a set of bright red eyes once it 'saw' Kagami.

Then the window to the left of its face cracked; not from anything the hoodie did, but from this really thin thing that shot behind it. Kagami quickly backed away from the window as another crack formed to the right of the thing outside. Kagami's back hit a wall and she watched as the creature took a step to the side, letting Kagami see the gurney again. Nothing happened for about ten seconds, during which Kagami could see that the gurney was the source of what cracked the window, then it retracted the tubes and the arm went limp. The red eyes in the hood went away and the creature moved away from the window to the head of the gurney. Kagami then saw it pushing the gurney past the window and away from the building.

Only then did Kagami lower the gun and release her held breath. She took a couple deep breaths to settle her nerves, only to nearly jump out of her skin when a door to her right opened. Kagami nearly pulled the trigger on reflex if she hadn't seen it was Konata, holding her head lightly in a daze.

"Jeez, don't scare me like that," Kagami said lowering the gun again.

"Sorry," Konata said and walked into the room to sit on the floor next to Kagami. "Did you… happen to say anything before I came in?"

"No," Kagami replied with a shake of her head, "why?"

"I could have sworn I heard someone call me just now." Konata shook her head and looked over at Kagami and said, "Ah never mind, it was probably my imagination. Anyway, I got what I was looking for." Konata lifted her other hand to show Kagami a small red box with a crosshair on it. "I'm glad this place isn't being totally stingy," she said and held her free hand to Kagami, who after a moment gave her the handgun.

Konata took the clip out and opened the box before she noticed the cracked front window. She turned to Kagami and asked, "What happened there?"

"I…I don't really know. My phone started going nuts and then this hospital gurney showed up outside. And then something else showed up and… well, you can see what happened." Konata nodded quietly refocused on the pistol.

"If that thing is wandering around, it will make getting around a little more difficult," Konata said and added under her breath, "at least it wasn't him."

"Huh?"

"Nothing, I'm just talking to myself." Kagami had wanted to ask what she meant, but her friend didn't look like she wanted to continue that conversation so Kagami was left with her own thoughts. Then Kagami remembered her cell phone and, with one glance at Konata, decided to at least try and figure something out.

"Hey Konata, do you mind if I ask something?" Kagami asked and quietly pulled out her phone.

"Sure," Konata answered simply and finished loading the clip she had been working on. She then looked at the box next to her and quietly said, "I should probably take the rest of these. I wonder if there's a spare magazine somewhere around here? Probably not, but I should still look."

Kagami ignored Konata's whispers and took a deep breath before saying, "I'll just come out and say it then. Does August 20th mean anything to you?" For just a split second Kagami saw Konata's eyes widen in surprise before they returned to their usual half paying attention look.

"Yeah, it does," Konata answered with a small hint of sadness and asked, "What made you bring that up?"

"I um…" Kagami paused and scratched her cheek for a second, which drew a questioning look from Konata, "I found a picture on my phone. It was dated August 20th and it seemed to be of your family's shrine. It just… made sense I guess." The whole way this went made Kagami feel weird, and that _look_ that Konata gave her told her it was a bad idea. Still, she had to know.

"Kagami, how much about me do you remember?" Kagami, not expecting that, could only watch as Konata set the pistol to the side to give Kagami her full attention. "You've been acting weird this whole time, saying and asking things that don't make much sense."

"Is that so weird?" Kagami asked as she leaned back against the wall. "After everything that's happened in the last hour or so, I would think me having a bit of a scattered memory would just be granted. It's probably the most normal thing of the weird stuff that's happened since that fog showed up." Konata stared at her for a couple of seconds before leaning back into the wall, running a hand through her black hair in the process.

"I guess you're right," she said and sighed a little, "it still hurts though." Kagami cringed at that comment and started rubbing her arm. After almost half a minute Konata sighed and said, "Well, I suppose I should explain a little. Maybe you'll remember if I do." Konata let her hair go, pulled her legs against her chest, and sat in thought. Kagami just sat and waited for Konata to be ready. It didn't take very long.

"August 20th is my Mom's birthday."

'_Her mom?'_ Kagami thought and immediately remembered the picture of a woman very similar to Konata in a lot of ways. _'Her birthday huh?'_

"I've made it a bit of a habit to visit her on her birthday every year," Konata continued. "Usually Dad goes with me, but sometimes I have to go alone due to his work. That picture you're talking about must be the first time I took you there." Kagami's head started to hurt again, but she ignored it for the sake of her friend. Even then, she started to remember bits and pieces of a conversation.

"_I haven't taken anyone else here before. You should feel honored."_

"_Yeah yeah, so what are we doing here?"_

"_You'll see."_

"I'm sure I told you this before, but I like spending time there. It's… cathartic, I guess would be the right word."

"_I've always been alone. I'm not sure if I gotten used to it or if I actually liked it, but being alone all the time does things to you. And constantly feeling shit and bitter and angry just…"_

"Eats away at you," Kagami said quietly.

"What was that?" Konata asked.

"Oh, you just managed to jog my memory is all. Not entirely, but still enough to make a difference." Kagami glanced over at Konata and was glad when she gave her a small smile.

"That's something at least. How are you feeling by the way?"

"My headache? I'm feeling better, so I think I can walk by myself."

"Alright. I'm going to take one last look around and we should probably get going afterwards." Kagami nodded and watched as Konata stood up and start for the door she opened her phone and turned her camera on.

"Hey Konata," Kagami said as she raised the phone and took a picture of Konata just as she turned around. Konata blinked in confusion and gave Kagami a questioning look as she saved the photo.

"What was that for?" Konata asked. Kagami closed her phone and smiled at Konata before answering.

"Motivation and to test something," she said and scratched her cheek slightly, "the photos on my phone had been acting weird too." Konata gave her twin tailed friend a look before shrugging lightly.

"Whatever makes you feel better I guess. Just try to warn me next time ok?"

"I'll try and remember," Kagami replied and gave Konata a small wave as she opened the door and stepped through. Once the door was closed Kagami opened her phone and quickly pulled up the photo she just took.

It was glitched, like some of the other photos.

"What is going on?" Kagami whispered and put her phone away.

* * *

><p>Konata's second search didn't turn up anything new, though Kagami volunteered to carry around the extra rounds Konata found. After that was settled, and making sure the streets outside were devoid of monsters, both girls took to the street and started walking. The absolute silence, save for their footsteps, that surrounded them sent a chill down Kagami's spine. It was so eerie knowing she was in a city and yet not hearing anything to suggest that.<p>

"So… when there aren't any of those things around, it means something like that hospital gurney is near?" Kagami asked, both to satisfy her curiosity and to break the silence.

"Yeah… or much worse," Konata answered. Kagami could tell from her voice that something was bugging her. Before she could say anything though, Konata shook her head and said, "Don't ask Kagami. Just trust me; there are worse things out there." Even though Kagami was now very curious, she decided to let the matter drop for the moment.

They stopped at a corner and Konata checked around the corner, letting out a small sigh at what she saw. Kagami peeked our as well and saw a very welcome sight.

"Well, you were actually right about the train station," Kagami said and glanced behind her when she thought she heard something.

"You're faith in me is well noted Kagamin," Konata said shooting Kagami a grin and rounding the corner. Kagami followed close behind and felt some small relief as they ascended the staircase, though that went away slightly at the sight of the train platform.

_Something_ had completely torn apart the area, leaving a couple benches as nothing more than splinters and some sections of the wall and floor with deep gashes. Kagami ran her fingers across one of these and quietly wondered as to what caused, or more specifically if she wanted to even know.

"The trains not here," Konata called over to Kagami, drawing the taller girl over to the empty platform. Sure enough there was no sign of a train or any indication one was coming. Konata put her pistol away and leaned against a nearby column and said, "I guess we wait now. I don't like how quiet it is though."

'_It's like a no win situation with this girl!'_ Kagami thought to herself,_ 'If those monsters are around it's bad; and if they aren't any there's something worse! Doesn't this girl ever relax?!'_ Kagami then said aloud, "So, where do you think we'll go when it gets here?"

"I don't know," Konata replied, "I just hope wherever it goes is close to a way out." Kagami couldn't think of anything to say in reply. The next minute or two were spent in silence until Konata broke it by an inexplicable bout of laughter.

"What is it?" Kagami asked as Konata almost bent over in laughter. The black haired girl soon regained her composure and adjusted her glasses with a finger.

"Oh nothing, just remembering something funny is all," Konata said and suppressed another bout of laughter before adding, "Why does the thought of that pink haired idol always get me laughing?"

"Idol? What are you talking about?"

"Oh nothing Kagami," Konata said with one last giggle, "You wouldn't understand." Then she said, in a more serious tone, "It's kind of stupid and complicated anyway."

"Stupid and complicated…?" Kagami thought for a moment before grabbing her hair and yelling, "AAAAAAAAH, you're driving me insane Konata! When is that damn train getting here?!"

"Don't shout like that you idiot! The walls have ears remember?!"

"So what?! Our phone's aren't giving anything off so why should I-" Before she realized it Konata had closed the distance and covered her mouth with a hand.

"Deep breaths, calm down," Konata ordered seriously, her eyes boring right into Kagami's. Despite Kagami's anger at this little invasion of personal space, she did as she was told. With every deep breath she took she felt her frustration seep out of her until she was calm enough to keep herself from shaking. Konata lifted her hand from Kagami's mouth and, when she was certain the girl wouldn't scream her head off, took a few steps away from her.

"Sorry about that. I…"

"It's alright," Konata interrupted with a wave of her hand, "you've always been an emotional open book, especially on frustration. Just try and control it when there are monsters around ok?"

"Uh… right," Kagami replied looking away from Konata's large grin. When she looked back Konata was looking back down the track and nodded to herself.

"I thought I heard a train coming," Konata said turning back to Kagami, "We might not have to wait for much longer."

"That's good. This silence is starting to get to me." Kagami looked behind her to make sure they were alone and turned back in time to see Konata quickly glance away from her. "What is it?"

"Nothing really, just wondering if you remembered anything else. There's nothing else to do while we're waiting."

"Well, not really. I can't really force this kind of thing though. I have been wondering something though."

"About what?" Here Kagami hesitated for a moment before taking a breath and asking.

"It's about those pills you took earlier." Kagami could see that Konata was immediately on the defensive, so Kagami was quick to add, "I'm sure you've told me why before, but… well." Kagami tapped the side of her forehead in silent explanation. Konata sighed lightly and adjusted her glasses in reply.

"I kind of knew this was coming," she said sadly and paused as a faint rumble filled the air. It grew louder until a train came from the girl's left and stopped in front of them, the doors opening a few seconds later. Konata shared a look with Kagami before quietly shoving her hands in her jacket pockets and walking onto the train, Kagami following a few seconds later. She was just about to cross the threshold into the train when her phone started to suddenly emit static.

"What the-?" Konata said staring at Kagami's pocket, "where is it? I didn't see-"

That answer was provided by a very sudden crash against one of the train's windows, causing both girls to scream in shock with Konata falling backwards onto the floor. It only got worse when they saw the bloodstain and what caused it outside. Kagami got to see the full form of a young woman's corpse dressed in a blood stained uniform of a café worker, though she couldn't see her face with the way it landed. Kagami was paralyzed from the sight with her back pressed against the train's door frame, though she could hear Konata wasn't faring much better.

"Oh crap, oh shit," was what she mostly repeated as she backed away from the sight of the woman's blood on the window and what little she saw through the door. Then Kagami heard this screeching sound like fifteen nails on a chalkboard fill the air, though the sight of what was making the sound didn't make her feel any better.

Kagami could hardly recognize the thing as human, but it certainly looked close to one. Her eyes were first drawn to its head which was covered in some kind of helmet that made Kagami's neck hurt just by looking at it. Its body looked mostly off white with specks of rust colored stains all over it, though Kagami was really focused on what it was dragging, which was big and sharp and was the source of that horrible screeching sound. For the split second that Kagami took that… _thing_ in she could tell she wasn't breathing, and then she heard Konata yelling.

"Kagami, get in the damn train!" she yelled as she grabbed Kagami's arm and pulled off her feet into the train car. That little jump as she hit the floor was enough to pull Kagami out of her stupor as she watched that thing get closer as the train doors slid shut. The last she saw of it was its helmeted head through the windows as the train pulled out of the station.

Once the train had left the station Kagami and Konata found that they could breathe again, though very rapidly and shakily. As the train rumbled along Kagami felt Konata's grip on her arm loosen until she let go and slowly pulled herself up onto one of the seats. She cradled her head in her hands and took a couple deep breaths before speaking up.

"That was way too close. Oh crap." Konata gave a small laugh, ran her hands through her hair, and leaned back in her chair to watch Kagami sit down in the seat opposite her. "Well, we're off now."

"Hopefully to somewhere with less monsters, especially ones like that," Kagami agreed and turned around to look outside of the window. The fog outside was just as thick as ever as they rolled along, the dark shapes of buildings outside rushing past. Kagami's mind slowly drifted to the woman as she stared outside. _'Where had she come from?'_ she thought, _'And who exactly was she? Another person that was trapped here?'_ Any further thought on the matter was interrupted by Konata.

"You know I always hate having to explain the pills," she said and nervously rubbed her arm. Kagami turned to give her a small confused look, causing Konata to sigh and say, "I'll say this as straightforward as possible and answer questions as they come. Just like last time." Konata let her arm go and looked Kagami straight in the eyes.

"I'm dying Kagami."

* * *

><p><em>I actually had some trouble earlier in this chapter, specifically on the dumb detail of name basis between Kagami and Misao. Interesting fact: I rewatched all of Lucky Star in addition to reading the first two volumes of the manga, and Kagami never refers to Misao by name once. I assume they're on last name basis, but I'm also going to assume that kind of thing gets put on hold in high stress situations.<em>

_Let's hope I don't cause this thing to crash and burn with some of the ideas I have eh? Later then._


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